Living Rooms: New Solo Show from Kira Phoenix K’inan for Spring

Kira’s work brings together fine art and craft through works on paper, glass sculptures, installations, and multi-exposure photography, which are sustainably and ethically produced in her London based studio. Today her collections are known for their rich colour palette, dynamic lines that intertwist into one another and works that are in constant visual flux.

Kira’s love of art and creating began at an early age. She grew up in a vibrant community of artists on Lamma Island and would spend her weekends exploring the island where she developed a close connection to nature. Living on Lamma Island, Hong Kong, also allowed her to fully explore her own curiosities, which came across in the stories she would tell whilst at play and works she would create. The joy of storytelling and expression has developed into the artwork she makes today, with each artwork series/project acting like a story’s narrative with a beginning, middle and end. 

In 2012 Kira took a once in a lifetime trip where she travelled, on her own, back to Hong Kong, Bali, Singapore, and Thailand. During this time, she created a series of watercolour works on paper that explored colour washes and the strength of the line inspired by her surroundings. Within these works on paper Kira explored the essential aspects of drawing, including line and form, and turned these structures into works that are in a visual flux. Taking inspiration from practitioners of the Futurism art movement, especially painters Kurt Schwitters and Umberto Boccioni, she used line and colour to create dynamic movement. 

Upon returning to the UK, Kira applied to the Ceramics and Glass MA course at The Royal College of Art. During the master’s course she developed a technique of translating her two-dimensional works on paper into three-dimensional glass sculptures that have become known as the Relief Glass Drawing technique. This labour-intensive, hands-on process allowed her to experiment with surface textures by carving into plaster batts and combining different glass colours for a vivid outcome. Whilst the composition might at first glance seem unconstructed, Kira set a series of rules to follow, like the plaster batt size to geometric shapes. These rules then allow for the more intuitive glass drawings to flow. 

Since 2020 Kira have been delving into colour explorations and colour mixing through the Glass Ishihara series and the colourful layers of glass that make up the Constructure series. Recently Kira has been combining sculpture with glass through the Superposition series, the delicate Palmately Netted Vein series and Flux series. Each glass artwork responds to the natural light and shifts their tone depending on the type of light they sit in. 

Kira’s collections have grown organically through my studies and two residencies, one at Konstfack, Stockholm, Sweden and the other at Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland. I sell globally to a dedicated clientele spanning the UK, Scandinavia, and USA. Each artwork now sits in loving homes or in commercial settings.  I continue to exhibit globally with highlights being Bullseye glass competition Emerge Bullseye 2018, shortlisted for the Ashurst Emerging Artists Prize in 2019, a finalist for The Visual Arts Open (2020), and exhibited at London Craft Week (2022), Decorex International (2022), Future Icons (2023) and MADE London (2023)

https://www.kpkinanglass.com/