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Artist Kayla Mohammadi exhibition at the Art Gallery

POUGHKEEPSIE (March 19, 2014) – The upcoming exhibition at the Marist College Art Gallery will feature the work of award-winning artist, Kayla Mohammadi. The exhibition will launch with a March 27 reception and run through April 26. Featured works are influenced by her dual Finnish and Persian heritage and seek the unexpected place encountered through sudden, fresh juxtapositions of form and color.

Kayla Mohammadi

March 27 – April 26

Marist College Art Gallery at the Steel Plant Studios

Opening reception, Thursday, March 27, 5-7 p.m.

Gallery Hours: Mon. – Fri., 12-5 p.m.

Kayla Mohammadi Mohammadi is first generation American, born to a Finnish mother and Iranian father in San Francisco. Like most Americans whose parents immigrated to this country, she grew up with influences beyond the typical suburban landscape. Her views of the world were shaped by three very different cultures: American, Finnish, and Persian. She has early memories of bright bold shapes of Scandinavian design from her mother and from her father she was introduced to poetic blues and rhythms of Islamic tile, and the intricate patterns in Persian rugs.

Mohammadi has been a juror for the Boston Young Contemporary Exhibition, the 2009 Rhode Island Council for the Arts Award, and the Harvard Reflection in Action Judging. She has been a fine arts lecturer at Massachusetts College of Art; Brandeis University in Waltham, MA; St. Mary’s College in Maryland; UMass Boston; Northeastern University; and the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. Past awards include: 2013 Joan Mitchell Artist Residency Award in New Orleans; 2008 Joan Mitchell Foundation Award for painters; Dedalus Foundation Award for 2008 Vermont Studio School Fellowship; Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation Grant for 2006; Blanche E. Coleman Award for 2004; Constantin Alajalov Scholarship; and Vermont Studio School Fellowship in 2001.