Born: Jakarta, Indonesia
MFA: 2015 Southern Illinois University (Carbondale, IL)
Chintia Kirana is a multidisciplinary artist from Jakarta, Indonesia. Kirana immigrated to the United States with her family at the age of twelve due to the political unrest caused by the Suharto regime and the targeting of Chinese descent in Indonesia.
Kirana spent time in Montgomery, Alabama, where she was deeply inspired by the history and resiliency of the people in the community. This experience expanded her practice to include socially engaged and community-based projects that explored themes of collective identity and were often collaborative and participatory.
Photo by Emily Stuart Thomas
In addition to her studio practice, Chintia is passionate about arts education, art-centric social activism, and community engagements. She has worked with the AP College Board as a content creator and AP Studio Art reader. She has taught at specialized arts high schools as well as at the university level. She also serves on the board of trustees of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. She founded Expose Art (Art Magazine and ArtHouse, an artist-run arts residency), and co-founded Montgomery Arts Projects (MAP), which brings artists from the United States and abroad to exchange dialogues and create public art in Montgomery. Chintia splits her time between Montgomery, Atlanta, and New York City with a studio in Montgomery, AL, and Brooklyn, NY.
Kirana's work has been exhibited in numerous solo, group, and juried exhibitions in the United States and internationally, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Dhaka National Museum of Art, the Wiregrass Museum of Art, the Zhou B Art Center, and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. Her works have been collected in private collections in the United States and abroad.
Award
2022 Verdant Fund/ Warhol Foundation Regranting Program Grantee
2022 Alabama State Art Council Artist Assistant Grant
2020 Alabama State Art Council Artist Fellowship
2019 Vermont Studio Center Merit Fellowship
2015 Windgate Foundation Research Grant
2009 Elizabeth Greenshield Foundation Grantee
Professional/ Teaching Experience
2022 AP College Board Advance Placement Drawing Portfolio Reader
2022 Advance Studio II Instructor, Huntingdon College, AL
2010- 2022 Visual Arts Instructor and Department Head at Booker T. Washington Performing Arts Magnet High School.
2022 Road Less Traveled Exhibit at Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Guest Curator
2021 Visiting Artist Lecture, Lousiana Tech University, LA
2021 Advance Placement Daily Guest Instructor with College Board
2020 Activating Your Space: Community Engagement and Public Art Panel, Southeastern Museum Conference, (Virtual due to Covid-19)
2020 Visiting Artist Lecture at Trinity Western University, British Columbia, Canada
2020 New Voices, Georgia Art Museum Association, Columbus, GA
2019 Visiting Artist Lecture at Southeastern Missouri State University
2019 Bearing Witness: Art of Alabama, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, AL
Exhibitions
2023 Echoes of Time (Solo Exhibition), WhiteSpace Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2023 Frequent Goodbyes, HSpace, Washington, DC
2022 Alabama Triennial, Abroms- Engel Institute for the Visual Arts, Birmingham, AL
2022 Gravitational Pull (Solo Exhibition), Lowel Mill, Huntsville, AL
2022 Kisses by A Rose, Lowel Mill Arts, Huntsville, AL
2021 My Love Is Your Love, Every Women Biennial, Copeland Gallery, London, UK
2021 Between Heaven and Earth (Solo Exhibition), Wiregrass Museum, Dothan, AL
2021 Path of Entry, Wiregrass Museum, Dothan, AL
2021 This is me, Montgomery, Kress on Dexter Gallery, Montgomery, AL
2020 Distant Future, The Red Mill Gallery, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2020 Silver Lining (Solo Exhibition), Olive DeLuce Gallery, Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville, MO
2019 Impact: Identity, Belonging and Migration, Iowa State University, Design on Main Gallery, Aimes, IA
2019 Transient (Solo Exhibition), Crisp Museum, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO
2019 Fe(Male), Expose Art, Kress on Dexter, Montgomery, AL
2019 Portraits, CICA Museum, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
2018 Art of The South, Crosstown Arts Center, Memphis, TN
2018 B18: Wiregrass Biennial, Wiregrass Museum, Dothan, AL
2018 Susak Expo Biennial, Losinjski Muzej, Mali Losinj, Croatia
2017 Uncommon Territory, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts