CV
Nika Kaiser is a visual artist working with photography, video, and installation. Her art practice intersects ideas of interspecies connection, folklore, future ecologies, and is informed by her upbringing in the Sonoran borderlands and a lineage of Jewish diaspora. Kaiser holds an MFA in Visual Art from the University of Oregon. Her work has been exhibited internationally and she has been the recipient of numerous awards, including two Arts Foundation New Works Grants, a Warhol Foundation Grant, and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship. She teaches experimental practices in the Department of Film and Television at the University of Arizona.
NIKA KAISER
b. 1985 | Tucson, Arizona
2013 - MFA Fine Arts - University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
SELECTED SOLO SHOWS
2022 - The Passage - Pidgin Palace Arts, Tucson, AZ
2021 - The Passage - Kiehle Gallery, Saint Cloud State University, Saint Cloud, MN
2021 - Recent Desert Works - Andrew Smith Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2019 - The Faraway - American Institute of Thoughts and Feelings, Tucson, AZ
2019 - Desert Sublimated - 5 Points, Tucson, AZ
2018 - Desert Sublimated - HSIW Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2017 - Dreamtime: an uncanny wilderness, Dikeou Collection, Denver CO
2017 - Threshold: Sonoran Sea, Steinfeld Warehouse, Tucson AZ
2015 - Dreamtime: an uncanny wilderness, Exploded View Microcinema, Tucson AZ
2015 - Desert Varnish, Hotel Congress, Tucson AZ
2013 - Subtle Body, Ditch Projects, Springfield OR
SELECTED SCREENINGS / FESTIVALS
2022 - Desert Oceanic, Collective Misnomer, Denver, CO (Solo Screening with performance by Alluvium)
2022 - Projection Series - Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, AZ
2021 - The Passage, American Institute of Thoughts and Feelings, Tucson, AZ (Online Engagement)
2020 - Threshold, Sonoran Sea, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, AZ (Online Engagement)
2019 - Kesey Farm Project Summer Festival, Eugene, OR
2018 - Ungrund Collective, Coaxial Arts, Los Angeles, CA
2017 - Ungrund Collective, Secret Project Robot, Brooklyn, NY
2013 - Cicada Cadence, Antimatter, Vancouver, BC
2013 - Wandering Through, Across and Within, WNDX Festival of the Moving Image, Winnipeg, MB
SELECTED COLLABORATIONS
2022 - Alluvium - (with Nathan Stickel) Site-Specific Performance, Sonoran Desert, AZ
2022 - Alluvium - (with Nathan Stickel) Live Performance, Rino Art Park, Denver, CO
2022 - Alluvium - (with Nathan Stickel) Live Performance, BCC, Tucson, AZ
2020 - Sprawl Magazine Microvolume 2 - Love, Tucson, AZ & Brooklyn, NY
2020 - Lavender Lattice and Vicki Brown, Set Projections, Golden Saguaro, Tucson AZ
2018 - Album art for June West - Broken Circles Label, Brooklyn, NY
2016-2017 - Projections for Ryan Chavira – Leisure Hive tour with Beach House, United States
2016 - Ungrund Collective: Be Nature, Hollywood Theatre, Portland OR
2014 - Pure Moods - Collaboration with Yu Yu Shiratori, Think Tank, Tucson AZ
2014 - Ungrund Collective: The Visible World is a Reflection of the Invisible World, Ditch Projects, Springfield, OR
2014 - Sonoran Strange, University of Rostock, Germany
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2020 - A Container of Light (Exhibition and curation) - Collective Misnomer, Denver, CO
2018 - Unarmed: Nika Kaiser, Kali Spitzer, Lia Griesser, Bridge Productions, Seattle, WA - Curated by Demian Dineyazhi
2017 - Wild Family, Border Patrol, Portland, ME
2017 - Threshold: Sonoran Sea, Nogales Museum of Art, Nogales, SON, MEX
2017 - Transnational Artwalk – Douglas/Agua Prieta, SON
2015 - As They Stood Together, Cameo Gallery, Portland, OR
2015 - Ofrenda, 5th Row Studio, Phoenix, AZ
2014 - Sacred Nipples, Bruce High Quality Foundation, Brooklyn, NY
2014 - 2-Minute Show, curated by Ashby Collinson, Portland Museum of Modern Art, Portland, OR
LECTURES / PANELS
2021 - Visiting Artist and Lecturer, Saint Cloud State University Department of Art, Saint Cloud, MN
2018 - Creating in a Harsh World, Hocofest, MOCA Tucson, AZ
2018 - Cicada Cadence Gallery Talk, Nisus @ Disjecta, Portland OR
2017 - Dikeou Collection, Denver CO
2016 - Artist Talk, MOCA Tucson, Tucson AZ
AWARDS
2021 - Warhol Foundation Grant through MOCA Tucson, AZ
2020 - Arts Foundation for Tucson & Southern AZ New Works Project Grant, Tucson, AZ
2017 - Arts Foundation for Tucson & Southern AZ New Works Project Grant, Tucson, AZ
2014 - Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship, Byrdcliffe Guild, Woodstock, NY
2013 - Dean’s Fellowship, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
RESIDENCIES
2019 - Arcosanti, Mayeur, AZ
2014 - Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Woodstock, NY
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2018-2022 University of Arizona School of Film and Television, Tucson, AZ
2016 Southwest University of Visual Arts, Tucson, AZ
2013 Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon Department of Digital Arts, Eugene, OR