Biography

Kimberly Callas is a new media artist, sculptor, environmental activist and the lead artist of the Social Practice project Discovering the Ecological Self. Callas received her MFA from the New York Academy of Art and her BFA from Stamps School of Art at the University of Michigan. She is currently the Artist-in-Residence for the Urban Coast Institute and an Associate Professor of Art at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, NJ.

Her work has been exhibited internationally in galleries and museums and has received national and international grants and awards. Recent grants include a Pollination Project Grant, an Urban Coast Institute Grant, and a Monmouth University Summer Faculty Fellowship. Recent exhibits include the 2019 International New Media Exhibit at the CICA Museum in South Korea, Summer Exhibition at Flowers Gallery in New York City, 9×12 at Dual Galleria in Budapest, Hungary and Crossing Boundaries: Art and the Future of Energy at The Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, FL.

Callas uses both handmade and emerging technologies to combine the human body with patterns and symbols from nature focusing on the idea of an ecological self. Art New England called work from her series Portrait of the Ecological Self, “Unforgettable.” Callas often creates within community and her Social Practice community project “Discovering the Ecological Self” was recently featured in the Huffington Post. She has led Discovering the Ecological Self workshops across the U.S. and internationally.

Callas grew up in northern Michigan and moved to New York City for graduate school. After witnessing the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, Callas and her husband, George Callas, moved with their family to MidCoast Maine and built and in-ground, stone house and then co-founded a sustainability institute. It was this work in sustainability that has led Callas to her recent artwork focusing on the ecological self.