Kristin Kyono

Artist Statement:

My art is about reinterpreting my urban experience.  I am inspired by the city’s diversity, and the juxtaposition of engineered and natural forms.  In my daily life in San Francisco, I observe a cacophony of ideas presented by signage, architecture and infrastructure.  I look for an underlying visual or conceptual relationship to give a situation new meaning.

My artistic process is a combination of photography, printmaking, drawing and painting.  I snap photos from buses and street corners and overlay them to create a springboard for abstraction.  By obscuring some aspects of the imagery, and strengthening others, I re-invent the landscape.

I mix imagery and formal elements to convey meaning on multiple levels of experience.  Buildings, branches and graphics dissolve into the sensual experience of surface, color and line.  Each artwork shows a unique history of marks and fusion of mediums, much like the urban environments they reflect.

Kristin Grahn Kyono is a San Francisco artist who specializes in mixed media painting.  Her work transforms gritty elements of the urban landscape into visual poetry. She has painted commissions for international companies, including Ritz-Carlton and Western Union, as well as a 45-foot mural for Jasper's Corner Tap in San Francisco. Kyono's work was featured by Saatchi Online in “Art We Love This Week”, and was published in American Art Collector.  She has had solo exhibitions at San Francisco’s Gallery 688, Henry Gifford Hardy Gallery, Andalu and Thirsty Bear Brewery. Group exhibitions include San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Modern Eden Gallery, ARC Gallery, 111 Minna and California Modern Gallery, among others. 

Kyono’s art reflects the sense of cultural fusion experienced by many urban Americans. Kristin was born into a Scandinavian-American family in Seattle, WA, and later married into a Japanese-American family in San Francisco, CA. Kyono earned an M.F.A. from Academy of Art University in San Francisco and a B.A. in Studio Art and Sociology from Whitman College in Washington State.  In addition to painting, Kyono helps run Margy Boyd Art Tours and is an Educator at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco and the Palo Alto Art Center.