Kohl King is an interdisciplinary artist working across painting, installation, sculpture, and mixed media. Her work explores questions of memory, vulnerability, transformation, and the relationship between individual experience and the larger world. Through an experimental and materially driven practice, she works with both traditional and unconventional materials, allowing process and material behavior to shape the development of each body of work.

Born in India, King received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Georgia and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Arizona. She also studied at The Cooper Union School of Art in New York, ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, and Florida International University.

Her work has been exhibited nationally at institutions including the University of Arizona Museum of Art and the Gallery of Contemporary and Indigenous Art in Tucson; the Torrance Art Museum; Otis College of Art and Design; West Los Angeles College; Fellows of Contemporary Art (FOCA) in California; and the Tate Gallery at the University of Georgia. In South Florida, her work has been exhibited at the Coral Springs Museum of Art, the Rosemary Duffy Larson Gallery, and other regional venues.

In 2025, King received an Artist Support Grant from the Broward Cultural Division and presented Soft Edges, a solo exhibition of her recent work. She is an Associate Professor of Art at Broward College, where she also serves as Director of The South Gallery.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Art is the way I have learned to understand, question, and connect with the world because it gives form to experiences that are difficult to express in words. I keep returning to the ancient Indian sutra Tat Tvam Asi—"I am that"—which expresses the idea that everything we encounter—materials, landscapes, memories, and one another—reflects something of ourselves. That philosophy continues to guide the way I see, think, and make.

The questions shift from one body of work to another, but I often return to the same ideas: how we navigate uncertainty, disorientation, and transformation; what remains, what disappears; and how our identities are continually reshaped by experience. I do not begin with fixed answers. Instead, each body of work becomes a way of thinking through these questions, trusting that meaning emerges through the act of making itself.

Rather than beginning with a predetermined medium, I let each body of work discover the form it needs. Materials are never neutral; they shape the questions as much as they respond to them, carrying and contributing to the work’s meaning. Whether I am working with paper, pins, glue, tape, thread, fabric, or the layered surfaces and mark-making of more traditional media, the physical qualities and behaviors of those materials become inseparable from what the work communicates. Through repetition, accumulation, repair, layering, and transformation, meaning develops through the making itself. In every case, the work unfolds through a sustained dialogue between material, process, and observation.

I work slowly and by accumulation, layering, removing, and revealing materials over time. Rather than resisting change, I allow materials to retain their own character and, at times, continue changing after a work is complete. The work develops through a sustained dialogue between intention, observation, and the unexpected, where meaning is discovered as much as it is constructed. Ultimately, I hope the work invites viewers to slow down, look closely, and discover their own points of connection. I am less interested in providing answers than in creating opportunities for reflection and recognition. I hope each work offers a space where the personal and the universal meet, reminding us that our most individual experiences are often part of a larger, shared human story.

SELECTED CV

EDUCATION

2026 — Florida International University, Graduate Coursework in Art (Non-Degree)
2005 — ArtCenter College of Design (ACAN), Graphic Design Certificate
2001 — Master of Fine Arts, University of Arizona, Summa Cum Laude
1996 — Post-Baccalaureate Coursework, The Cooper Union School of Art
1995 — Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting & Drawing, University of Georgia

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2025 — Soft Edges, 1310 Gallery, Fort Lauderdale, FL
2014 — Presence, Salomon Huerta Projects, Pasadena, CA
2001 — Paper & Spice, Shane House, Tucson, AZ
1997–1998 — Awake But Dreaming, Athens-Clarke County City Hall, Athens, GA
1997 — As I See the World, Tate Gallery, University of Georgia, Athens, GA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026 — Center Salon, Hollywood Arts & Culture Center, Hollywood, FL
2025 — Gestalt, Rosemary Duffy Larson Gallery, Davie, FL
2025 — Transitions, Coral Springs Museum of Art, Coral Springs, FL
2024 — Myriad, Rosemary Duffy Larson Gallery, Davie, FL
2019–2022 — Altered Poetics, with poet Amber Nelson, Seattle, WA
2020 — Different States, with Emily Nyburg, Los Angeles, CA
2015 — Curate This, The Gabba Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2015 — Divergence, Keystone Art Space, Los Angeles, CA
2015 — Potential Bodies, the SPACE, Culver City, CA
2015 — Forgetting the Future, Torrance Museum of Art, Torrance, CA
2015 — summertimeshift, Summercamp's Projectproject, El Sereno, CA
2014 — Freeway Studies #2: Inside the Quad, Ben Maltz Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2014 — Itch Scratch Scar, Fellows of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
2013 — Homing Pigeon, 605 Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2013 — No Region Would, West LA Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2001 — Import / Export, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL
2001 — Armed & Dangerous, University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
2001 — Mish/Mosh & More, Gallery of Contemporary & Indigenous Art, Tucson, AZ
2001 — Time, Place Relationships, two-person exhibition with Kristen Heist, Lionel Rombach Gallery, Tucson, AZ
1999 — S.W.A.P., New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM

GRANTS & AWARDS

2024 — Broward Cultural Division Artist Support Grant, Broward County
2021–2025 — Cultural Affairs & Student Engagement (CASE) Awards, Broward College
2014 — Fellows of Contemporary Art Co-Lab Grant
2000 — Asian American Project Fund Grant, University of Arizona
1991 — Artist Grant, Miami Dade College

SELECTED RESIDENCIES

2017 — Land With No Name Arts, Tucson, AZ
2013 — Chloe Flores: Facebook, online
2010 — Kashi, Fort Kochi, India

PROFESSIONAL & ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE

2021–Present — Associate Professor of Art, Broward College
2021–Present — Gallery Director, The South Gallery, Broward College, South Campus
2018–2026 — Adjunct Professor, Miami Dade College
2008–2015 — Professor, The Art Institute of California, Santa Monica
2001–2004 — Adjunct Professor, Pima Community College
2000–2001 — Adjunct Professor, University of Arizona

SELECTED LECTURES, PANELS & PUBLIC PROGRAMS

2025 — Panelist, Transitions, Coral Springs Museum
2022 — Speaker, Impermanence in Art, Miami Dade College
2020 — Moderator, Racial Disparity in America, Broward College
2017 — Artist Lecturer, The Land With No Name, Tucson, AZ

SELECTED PRESS

2025 — “Soft Edges Navigates Artist Kohl King’s Healing Journey Through Loss and Grief,” ArtsCalendar
2012 — Los Angeles Times, October 14, 2012. Quoted and photographed in studio.
2001 — “Coming Together in Art,” Daily Arizona Wildcat, January 11, 2001. Photographed and quoted.
2000 — “Graduate Association Art Symposium, Exhibit,” Arizona Wildcat, February 17, 2000.
1997 — “A Side Order of Art,” Athens Daily News, January 12, 1997.
1996 — “Close-Up: Kohl Mathews’ Paintings Manifest a Complex Melody,” The Athens Observer, April 18, 1996.