Kat Kinnick and
Zahra Marwan:
Ruminations and Remnants
No Land | July 2017
“It started at the farmer’s market,” says Kat Kinnick. That’s where Zahra Marwan sells her illustrations, and Kinnick’s partner Jordan Wax sometimes performs with his band Lone Piñon. “Zahra saw an album cover I designed for Lone Piñon, and reached out to me to do a show,” Kinnick recalls. “She told me that she makes art as her living. I was like, ‘How does this person do this?’”
They became fast friends, and have supported each other in their early careers as professional artists. “Kat calls herself an ‘in the closet’ artist, but she’s been making a lot more work lately,” says Marwan. “She’s inspired me a lot in so many ways as well.”
Marwan was born in Kuwait, and moved to Albuquerque with her family when she was a child. Now an American citizen, she has traveled back and forth several times in the past few years to visit family. Her watercolor-and-ink illustrations capture everyday moments in both places, highlighting differences and similarities between the two cultures that Marwan moves between.
Other drawings feature charming portraits of her friends, or scenes from her travels across the world. “I search for certain things that I remember, and invent things as well,” Marwan says. “I blend together real experiences with things that I imagine. Drawing helps gets these things out.”
Kinnick grew up in Albuquerque, and her parents restore Navajo rugs. She studied art at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. Even in her time away from the high desert, she made paintings of New Mexico’s flora and fauna. Now living in Santa Fe, she continues to depict the natural world with the intention of bringing viewers back in touch with the wild.
Kinnick works in watercolor and gouache to bring plants and animals to life on paper and board. “Creating culture is like creating a value system,” she says. “My work represents my heart and my values. I feel like if we knew animals and plants better, and were more connected to them, then we’d live in a healthier world.”
Press
“Kinnick and Marwan’s works fill every nook and cranny of the space to create a homespun environment down to small details such as handwritten titles and binder clips that hold the art. There is fluidity between the pieces, but also distinct styles that speak to each woman's individual story prior to crossing paths.”
-Liz Brindley, Santa Fe Reporter
My contributions: Curatorial with Kyle Farrell and Alex Gill, press relations
Artwork: Zahra Marwan & Kat Kinnick