Kimi Hanauer

Kimi Hanauer is an artist, media-based organizer, facilitator, and writer. Kimi is a founding collective member of interdisciplinary publishing initiative, Press Press (est. 2014), and the founding steward of nomadic political education school, Center for Liberatory Practice & Poetry (est. 2021). In their practice, Kimi co-develops pragmatic-poetic initiatives as scaffolds for collective autonomies. Their interdisciplinary projects take various responsive forms, including installations, performances, videos, texts, programs and printed matter. As an Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute’s Graduate and Undergraduate Communication Design Departments, Kimi teaches courses in expanded publishing and collective cultural practices. Informed by anarchist and abolitionist frameworks, their work as a facilitator and educator aims to deepen our collective capacities for self-governance, belonging, solidarity and care. 

Kimi’s work is archived in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Library of Congress, Yale University Library, George Peabody Library, John M. Flaxman Library at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Art Center College of Design Art Library, Virginia Commonwealth University Special Collections, among others. Kimi’s work has been exhibited at the Mandeville Art Gallery at the University of San Diego, California (2023), Vox Populi & Atelier Gallery (2023), the Sarofim School of Fine Arts Gallery at Southwestern University (2023), Lainer Family Gallery at the University of California, Los Angeles (2022), Southern Exposure (2021), Gas Gallery (2021), Printed Matter (2020), the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA (2019), Counterpublic (2019), Tufts University Art Galleries (2019), George Peabody Library (2019), ACRE Projects (2018), MoMA PS1 (2018), among others.

Kimi has facilitated public programs at conferences and art institutions including the Allied Media Conference, UCLA Center for the Study of Women’s Thinking Gender Conference, Common Field Convening, Open Engagement, Art & Feminism, Contemporary Artist Books Conference, Printed Matter Art Book Fair, Center for Book Arts, Pioneer Works, Knockdown Center, Virtual Care Lab, X-TRA, Active Cultures, ICA Los Angeles, among others. Kimi has lectured widely at universities including at University of California Berkeley, Yale University, California College for the Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, American University, Ithaca College, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Antioch University, Tufts University, Maryland Institute College of Art and was formerly an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Kimi is the recipient of grants and awards including the Lightening Fund Grant by the Andy Warhol Foundation and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (2023), Virginia Commonwealth University Research Grant (2023), Louis Vidal Foundation (2021), the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation (2018), the Ruby’s Artist Grants (2017), the Grit Fund by the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Contemporary Museum (2016), the Fred Lazarus Social Change Award (2015), among others. They have been published by the Women’s Studio Workshop, GenderFail, Wendy’s Subway, Temporary Art Review, Arts of the Working Class, BmoreArt, MARCH, Thick Press, and the Contemporary (Baltimore).

24′ Studio Fellow, Whitney Independent Study Program

21′ MFA Interdisciplinary Studio, University of California, Los Angeles

15′ BFA Interdisciplinary Sculpture, Maryland Institute College of Art