Kayla Mohammadi, born in San Francisco, California, now resides in Boston, Massachusetts.
Mohammadi received her BFA in 1998 from the University of Washington in Seattle and her MFA in 2002 from Boston University. Currently she is a Lecturer in Fine Arts at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA. She has been a visiting artist and lecturer at UMass Boston, Northeastern University, MassArt, and the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University.
Awards include: The Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation Grant, Blanche E. Coleman Award, the Constantin Alajalov Scholarship, and Vermont Studio School Fellowship.
Working from observation – landscape, interior, or still life – Kayla Mohammadi seeks visual translation rather than literal portrayal in her paintings. Influenced by her dual Finnish and Persian heritage, her work seeks the unexpected place we encounter through sudden, fresh juxtapositions of form and color. In Mohammadi's paintings, memory, formal elements, and observation are competing energies that coalesce, asking us familiar questions: Can I walk into this space? Do I want to? Am I standing on solid ground, being pushed away, or finally stepping through to a new place?
