Kaela Mei-Chee Chambers is an interdisciplinary artist born and raised in New York City. Combining text, imagery, and installation, Kaela examines an absurdist desire to define and quantify healing; a frantic need for (and failing of) structure in times of personal crisis, and the language constructed around that need.
Chambers’s public project Eastern Aphasia Caress, commissioned by High Line Art in partnership with NYPL’s Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library, is on view through November 2025. Chambers is a 2024 recipient of the Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Award. Recent residencies and fellowships include MacDowell (2024) and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2023). Chambers received her MFA in 2022 from Columbia University.
Kaela Mei-Chee Chambers
b. 1993 in New York, NY
Education
2023 Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture
2022 MFA Visual Art (Printmaking), Columbia University School of the Arts
2015 BA Visual Art & Art History, Barnard College
Public Projects
2024 Eastern Aphasia Caress (EAC). Commissioned and produced by High Line Art, presented by the High Line and Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library, New York, NY
Group Exhibitions
2023 Loopholes, curated by Caroline Weinstock, Louise McCagg (‘59) Gallery, Barnard College, New York, NY
2023 Heaven Is a Different Thing, curated by Travis Fairclough, Unclebrother, Hancock, NY
2022 Otherwise, curated by Carlota Ortiz Monasterio, Ho Won Kim, & Victoria Horrocks, Half Gallery, New York, NY
2022 Noumena, curated by Emmanuel Olunkwa & Sally Eaves Hughes, ChaShaMa, New York, NY
2022 In Response: Jonas Mekas, Jewish Museum, New York, NY
2022 Class of 2022 MFA Thesis Exhibition, curated by Elisabeth Sherman, Wallach Art Gallery, New York, NY
2022 Would You Like to See the Dessert Menu, curated by Ray Barsante, Skylight Gardens Prentis Hall, New York, NY
2021 THE (better late than never) SUMMER SHOW, curated by Junni Chen and Owen Duffy, ChaShaMa, New York, NY
2019 PRINTFEST, International Print Center New York, NY
2018 Three Days in the Desert, curated by Sadia Shirazi, Lower East Side Printshop, New York, NY
2015 A Critical Show, Barnard College Mid-Year Thesis Exhibition, New York, NY
2014 In Progress, Barnard College, New York, NY
2013 Terminus, Postcrypt Art Gallery, New York, NY
2013 Miniscule, Postcrypt Art Gallery, New York, NY
2012 Body Language, Postcrypt Art Gallery, New York, NY
2012 Image/Text, Postcrypt Art Gallery, New York, NY
Solo & 2-Person Exhibitions
2015 Garden, Barnard College Thesis Exhibition, curated by Valerie Smith, New York, NY
2014 Airplane Poems, 266w25th st, New York, NY
2012 ABACUS (with Leah Wolff), Postcrypt Art Gallery, New York, NY
Awards
2024 Emerging Artist Grant, Rema Hort Mann Foundation
2024 MacDowell Fellowship
2019 LeRoy and Janet Neiman Gift Scholarship, Columbia University
2019 Neiman Fellowship, LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies
2019 Glasier Fellowship, Columbia University
2019 Visual Arts Program Scholarship, Columbia University
2015 Nancy Hoffman Prize, Barnard Art History / Visual Art Department Barnard College Thesis Grant
Publications & Speaking
2022 Interval Reading Series, organized by Sophie Kovel & Robert Rubsam, KGB Bar, NY
2020 “TSA_PDF 019: Lines Inside,” Tiger Strikes Asteroid
2020 “ART@COVID.EDU: Studio Art MFAs and the Cost of Remote Learning,” organized by Emilio Martinez Poppe, CUE Art Foundation
Press
2020 “MFA Spotlight,” Artforum
2012 “Abacus at Postcrypt,” BWOG
Collections
Harvard Art Museums, Print Department, Cambridge, MA
Teaching
2015-2023 Adjunct Professor, Kean University, Union, NJ
2019-2022 Teaching Assistant, Columbia University, New York, NY
Curatorial
2021 PPE, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, New York, NY