JEFF KAHM

Jeff Kahm (Kahmakoatayo) 1968 – 2021, Plains Cree, born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in 1990 to study painting and photography and soon after was awarded a painting scholarship to attend the Kansas City Art Institute where he earned a BFA in 1994. He continued graduate studies at the University of Alberta earning an MFA in painting in 1997.

In 2002, Jeff returned to New Mexico, a land that he grew to love and called home. He became a permanent resident in 2003 and soon began teaching at the Institute of American Indian Arts as a visiting faculty member. He was an associate professor at IAIA where he taught studio art courses at the intermediate and advanced levels.

His recent solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico (2012) and at Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art in Winnipeg, Manitoba (2013) highlighted his most recent work – a striking series of small works on paper and panels and an impressive collection of large scale paintings on canvas – work he described as ‘rooted in Indigenous abstraction and Modernist aesthetics’. His work continues to reach a wider audience through various invitational and group shows nationally and internationally.