As the daughter of Iranian Baha'i refugees, my work explores resilience, displacement, and the feminine experience. Through painting and sculpture, I examine how pain is inherited and transformed across generations, particularly in the lives of women. My practice merges personal narrative with collective history, addressing the weight of generational trauma and the ways we carry, confront, and mend it.
Working with papyrus as her canvas, Iranian-American artist Kimia Ferdowsi Kline paints scenes where ochre and flesh-toned figures intertwine and embrace in a symbiosis that is both tender and fraught. Steeped in the memory of her Iranian homeland, her work subtly evokes the multiplicity of human experience.
A graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, where she earned her M.F.A., and of Washington University in St. Louis, where she received a B.F.A. in painting and was awarded a full-tuition Danforth Scholarship, Kline draws from two visual traditions. Her work merges a flat, decorative Eastern style inspired by Persian miniatures and carpets with a Western, mottled approach to the human figure. This blending of styles mirrors her dual identity, bridging cultures to tell layered, nuanced stories that honour both ancestral memory and contemporary presence.
Incorporating materials such as salvaged wood, Egyptian papyrus, and gemstones, Kline's multimedia approach conceptually reinforces the themes she explores. Salvaged wood speaks to acts of repair and reclamation, its solidity echoing the weight of trauma. Papyrus, at once ancient and fragile, evokes archetypes of survival, while her careful stitching becomes a gesture of care, embodying the labour of healing fractured relationships. Through these tactile, symbolic processes, she transforms pain into a space for reflection, resilience, and transformation.
EDUCATION
MFA San Francisco Art Institute, Painting, 2011
BFA Washington University, Painting, 2008, Cum Laude
Minors in Persian and Business
MUSEUM/ INSTITUTIONAL SHOWS
2025 - Frist Museum of Art, Nashville, TN, 2026 (upcoming)
2018 - MOCAD Art Auction, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
2017 - MOCAD Art Auction, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
S O L O E X H I B I T I O N S
2024 - Drinking Tears, Tinney Contemporary, Nashville, TN
2023 - Hex, Mara Hoffman, New York, NY
2021 - Mother Tongue, Marrow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2018 - Elbow Room, Turn Gallery, New York, NY
2017 - Soulmate, 68 Projects, Berlin, Germany
2017 - Waiting Outside, Marrow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2017 - Breathing on Land, Turn Gallery, New York, NY
2016 - Sky Thing, Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA
2016 - As Above, So Below, Elaine. L. Jacob Gallery, Wayne State, Detroit, MI
2015 - Landscapes For The Hungry, Turn Gallery, New York, NY
2014 - Eden, Turn Gallery, New York, NY
S ELECT GROUP E X H I B I T I O N S
2026 - Frist Museum of Art, Nashville, TN (upcoming)
2025 - Patricia Sweetow Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (upcoming)
2025 - Allouche Gallery, New York, NY (upcoming)
2024 - Resting Point, Turn Gallery, New York, NY
2024 - Berlin On My Mind, 68 Projects, Berlin, Germany
2024 - Arcadian Revival, Macedonia Institute, Hudson, NY
2023 - Revive, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
2022 - To Make Me Forget About Now, Galerie Julien Cadet, Paris, France
2022 - The Fire And The Cow, Galleria Giovanni Bonelli, Milan, Italy
2022 - Shelter From The Storm, Diane Rosenstein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2022 - Orion, Scott Miller Projects, Birmingham, AL
2022 - Mundus Inversus, Red Arrow Gallery, Nashville, TN
2021 - Spring Break Art Show, New York, NY
2021 - Pencil In The Studio, Hope College, Holland, MI
2020 - SWAB Art Fair, 68 Projects, Barcelona, Spain
2020 - You Look Like A World, Able Baker Contemporary, Portland, Maine
2020 - Healing Feeling, Dominique Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2020 - Les Corps Primaires, Galerie C.O.A., Montreal, Quebec
2020 - Dialogues, Turn Gallery, New York, NY
2020 - Keyhole, Turn Gallery, New York, NY
2020 - Make Me One With Everything, Grifter Space, New York, NY
2020 - Zwang, CG Boerner, New York, NY
2020 - Purple, Underdonk, Brooklyn, NY
2020 - Spring Break Art Show LA, Los Angeles, CA
2019 - Birds Make People Smile, Room Art Space, Brooklyn, NY
2019 - Pool Party, C24 Gallery, New York, NY
2019 - Pack den Badeanzug Ein, 68 Projects, Berlin, Germany
2019 - Ramblin' Round, Stonehouse Projects, Cortlandt, New York
2019 - Rosy-Fingered Dawn, PACE University, New York, NY
2018 - Paper Bound, Turn Gallery, New York, NY
2018 - MOCAD Art Auction, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
2018 - Steady Hands, Marrow Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2018 - Untitled Projects, Crush Curatorial, Amagansett, NY
2018 - Collect, Soloway Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2017 - MOCAD Art Auction, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
2017 - Feed the Meter Vol. 2, Ceysson & Bénétière, Luxembourg
2017 - East Hampton Biennial, CANADA Gallery, East Hampton, NY
2017 - We Might Not Have a Planet Left Soon, 68 Projects, Berlin, Germany
2017 - Say Yes, Elaine L. Jacobs Gallery, Detroit, MI
2017 - Body/Head, Field Projects, New York, NY
2016 - The World's Mine Oyster, Galerie Nicolas Hugo, London, UK
2016-2017 - Borderless, New York Foundation for the Arts, Brooklyn, NY
2016 - Phantasmagoria, Idio Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2015 - Tomorrow's Today, Brilliant Champions, Brooklyn, NY
2014 - The Intuitionists, The Drawing Center, New York, NY
A W A R D S + ART RESIDENCIES
2024 - Allouche Gallery Studio Residency, New York, NY
2023 - Surf Point Foundation, York, Maine
2019 - The Macedonia Institute, Hudson Valley, NY
2018 - Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Grant Nomination
2017 - 68 Projects Residency, Berlin, Germany
2015-2016 - New York Foundation For the Arts, Basil Alkazzi Detroit Residency
2014-2015 - Makehouse Artist Residency
2014 - New York Academy of Art, Master Class Scholarship
2012 - The Drawing Center Viewing Program
2011 - The Dune Residency, Pondicherry, India
2007 - Huntsinger Memorial Prize in Painting, Washington University
2004-2008 - Danforth Scholarship, Washington University
PRESS PUBLICATIONS
2023 - Mapping Constellations Across 'Body Full of Stars', FAD Magazine
2022 - Off-Site: Kimia Ferdowsi Kline in Paris, Nashville Scene
2021 - After Pregnancy, an Artist's Work Changes Course, Hyperallergic
2020 - Meet the Art World Rising Star Kimia Ferdowsi Kline, Departures
2020 - CANADA & Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, Hyperallergic
2020 - Art Maze Mag, Winter Issue 16, Curated by Scott Ogden
2019 - The Women's Issue, The Harvard Advocate
2019 - A Look Inside The Wythe Hotel's Multidisciplinary Art Program, Galerie Magazine
2019 - Taking Wythe Hotel Live, Performance is Alive
2019 - Interview with Kimia Kline, The Creative Independent
2018 - The Curators, The Observer, April 16
2017 - Paradise Lost: The Ills of Intimacy, Blouin Art Info, May 15
2017 - Maake Magazine, Issue 4, curated by Jon Lutz
2016 - New American Paintings, No. 128 Northeast Issue
2016 - Artist's Guide to Detroit, Architectural Digest, June
2016 - Talking with Kimia Ferdowsi Kline, Brooklyn Magazine, May
2016 - Mythical Memory, Cultured Magazine, May
2016 - Kimia Kline at the ELJ Gallery, Detroit Art Review, April
2016 - Pencil in the Studio, Maria Calandra, April
2016 - How The Wythe Hotel Became an Incubator for Artists, Brooklyn Magazine, March
2016 - Pass a Tortilla Factory and Enter a Phantasmagoria of Art, Bedford and Bowery, January
2015 - Conversation with Kimia Ferdowsi Kline, NYFA Current, December
2015 - An Enchanting Love Letter to her Iranian Heritage, Gallery Gurls, November 29
2015 - Kimia Ferdowsi Kline Takes Residency in Detroit, Playground Detroit, October 5
2015 - Painter Kimia Ferdowsi Kline chosen as Basil Alkazzi Artist in Residence at Wayne State University in Detroit, NYFA Current, September
2015 - Artist's View: Kimia Ferdowsi Kline, Travel + Leisure, October
2015 - Artist Feature: Kimia Ferdowsi Kline, By Way of Brooklyn, September 2
2015 - Three Artists On the Verge, Cultured Magazine, Summer
2015 - Brooklyn's Ever-Cool Wythe Hotel Now Spotlights Local Artists, Travel + Leisure Magazine
2012 - Kimia Ferdowsi Kline Gets Back to the Garden in 'Chahar Baagh' Paintings, Asia Society
2008 - One Face at a Time, Washington University in St. Louis