Kira Maria Shewfelt

Biography

Kira Maria Shewfelt is an artist and educator based in Los Angeles. She received an MFA from New York University, M.A. in Art History from the University of Southern California, and B.A. in Comparative Literature from Yale University. She has been teaching drawing and painting in the Studio Art Department at Pepperdine University since 2020. Her paintings explores the ways in which a body contains and permits feeling through color and gesture. She is interested the permeability the figurative vessel to the emotional self and revisiting the history of narrative painting with this lens. She is also deeply curious the representation of personal yet shared experience and her research focuses on femininity, motherhood, and the cultural politics of leisure. Recent exhibitions include “The Yearlings” with Make Room (Los Angeles) and group shows: “Love & Mercy Blue” at the European Culture Centre’s Personal Structures Biennale (Venice), “Loop, Hum, Wave” at the Weisman Museum of Art (Malibu), “piano, piano” at Et Al (San Francisco), “The Angels” with Baik Art Gallery & The Noblesse Collection (Seoul), and LA Dreams: Light Touch with CFHill (Stockholm). Her work can be found in the collection of AMOCA Wales and private collections internationally.

Education

• MFA from New York University
• M.A. in Art History from the University of Southern California
• B.A. in Comparative Literature from Yale University