Bio:
Kiera Stuart is a contemporary artist focusing on surreal figurative oil paintings. She grew up learning about local native cultures that lived in harmony with the earth and modern environmental justice and sustainable living from her parents in rural Long Island, NY. Transitioning to NYC as a teenager, she studied anatomical drawing and fine art at the Fashion Institute of Technology and The Art Students League. She later received a Bachelor's degree in studio art from Hunter College in 2018 followed by an MFA in fine art from Brooklyn College in 2022.
Stuart has spent time in Mexico City, Guanajuato and the Yucatan peninsula studying Mayan and Aztec art and history. She also attended the Sachaqa Art Residency in Tarapoto Peru near the Amazon Rainforest where she learned indigenous methods of building, making pottery, paper and pigments.
Stuart has showcased her work nationally, while serving as a curator and co-director at the non-profit Box Factory Gallery in Ridgewood, Queens, which exhibited work by over 50 local artists during her tenure from 2020 to 2022. Currently based in Bushwick, Brooklyn; she maintains a studio practice while continuing to explore interests of pre-colonial cultures, sustainability, environmental and social justice while actively participating in the vibrant NYC art scene.
Exhibition History
Solo Exhibition:
“Monolithic Vulnerability” Box Factory Gallery, 1519 Decatur st. Ridgewood NY, 11221 11/10-1/30/2023
Group Exhibits:
“Color A National Juried Exhibition” Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition Sept 9-Oct 8th 2023
481 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
“Beyond Gender” Relational Space Gallery hosted by Ceres Gallery 527 w. 27th st, gallery 201 6/22-6-24/22
Arts+Science collaborative exhibit, a non-binary story told collectively by six artists and scientists.
“Literally, a figurative art show” Shock Boxx Gallery. 636 Cypress Ave, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254 03/04/2023-03/18/2023
“Shelter in the Storm” 601 art space, NY, NY. Brooklyn College MFA Thesis Exhibit
06/18-06/32/22
“The Process of Abstraction: nature, movement and light” Box Factory Gallery, 1519 Decatur street, Ridgewood NY. 3/05-4/22/2022
“Coping Reservoir” The Box Factory Gallery, Sept 18 2021 to October 10th 2021. 1519 Decatur street, Ridgewood NY.
“Tell Me More” Art Gallery 118, online Exhibit May 4 - June 4, 2021 website https://www.artgallery118.com
“International Women’s Day Show” The Living Gallery Brooklyn NY Sept 2019
“The Cosmic Cunt” Public Art Exhibit in Miami, May 2019
“What we call Home” Group art show at Sage gallery, Brooklyn NY 03/05/2019 to 04/13/2019
“Building Power: A Benefit for VOCAL and the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights” Planthouse Gallery, New York, NY. 01/20/2019
Hunter BFA Thesis Show at the Leubsdorff Gallery, NY NY 06/2018
“Collateral” Group Show at the Union City Museum of Art, Union City NJ 09/2017
“Fusion” Benefit art show for the Homeless at The Lovecraft Bar, Manhattan NY 04/2017
"Glossary Hole" Group Exhibition at the Living Gallery, Bushwick NY 03/2016
The Miami Red Dot Art Fair, group exhibition with the Emmanuel Fremin Gallery, SOHO NYC November 30th to December 6th 2010
"The Green Project" Kiera Stuart and Kamol Arkonov at the Emmanuel Fremin Gallery, Soho NYC. May, 2010
"Native Contours, glorification of the female form" the Tina Y'ess foundation charity fundraiser art show. Brooklyn NY August 15 2010
"No Biting" 320 Gallery, group show curated by Rustam Davletchin, New York, NY July 20th 2010
EDUCATION
Fashion Institute of Technology, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
Concentration: Design & Illustration
State University of New York at Stony Brook, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
Concentration: painting and studio art
Teacher’s Assistant For Toby Bouno in Ceramic Sculptures Course, Fall 2012
Hunter University, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
Bachelor's degree in Fine Art, Graduated 06/2018
Concentration: painting and studio art
Brooklyn College, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
MFA in Fine Art, graduation 06/2022
Concentration: painting
Teaching assistant for Diana Horowitz
Intro to Painting, Spring 2020 and Fall 2020
Fellowships, Grants & Residency awards
Sachaqa Centro del Arte Tarapoto, Peru 8/2023
City Artist Corps Grant recipient 2021
Soaring Gardens Residency, Laceyville PA
Accepted August 2019, July 2020 and August 2021
Kossack Fellowship for painting at Hunter College
Fall 2017 and Spring 2018
Curatorial work:
The Box Factory Gallery Co-Director and Curator
Box Factory Gallery from 2020-2023
1519 Decatur st. Ridgewood, NY 11221 August 21st 2021- March 2023
“Omen, Amen” June 18th - August 8th, 2022.
Curated by Kiera Stuart.
“Coping Reservoir”
A group art show featuring art created during the pandemic from 18 local artists. Curated by Kiera Stuart.
Sept 18th -October 10th, 2021
Publications
“Pandemic Self Portraits” Book by Adrienne DeLoe, published 06/2022
Shanti Arts LLC - Still Point Art Gallery: Making a Mark, Still Point Arts Quarterly 2020
“Beyond Words” Literary Magazine, Summer edition of 2020
“Club 157 Art Catalogue” Club 157 Catalog Beta Issue / Fall 2018
Cambridge University Press
Selected original paintings for the covers of the following books:
“Managing the Menopause: 21st Century Solutions”, Edited by Nick Panay, Paula Briggs and Gab Kovacs Published July 2015
“Contraception: A Casebook from Menarche to Menopause”
Edited by Paula Briggs, Gabor Kovacs and John Guillebaud Published July, 2014