Memorial for Jeff Kahm
A memorial will be held for IAIA Assistant Professor Jeff Kahm (Plains Cree) on Wednesday, March 31, at 11 am (MDT). The event, held in the Gym on the IAIA campus, will be live streamed on this web page. The IAIA campus is closed to the public. Jeff Kahm passed away on Friday, March 26.
“His feedback was always some of the most valuable,” said IAIA Assistant Professor Brian Fleetwood. “There are a lot of people who come in with an ego, and despite his incredible technical ability and his knowledge of art history and painting in particular, he always came at a critique without a chip on his shoulder that a lot of people bring.”
Kahm was humble, soft-spoken and “had a tremendous work ethic and commitment to the school,” Fleetwood said.
Jeff Kahm
About Jeff Kahm
L. Jeff Kahm (Plains Cree) was 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 earning a BFA in 1994. He continued graduate studies at the University of Alberta earning an MFA in 1997.
In 2002, Kahm returned to New Mexico, a land that he grew to love and where he 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. Kahm was an associate professor at IAIA where he taught studio art courses at the intermediate and advanced levels.
His landmark exhibitions at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico (2012), Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art in Winnipeg, Manitoba (2013) and Chiaroscuro Contemporary Art in Santa Fe (2016) highlighted his 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.
Visit Jeff Kahm’s website.
Biographic information from Jeff Kahm’s website. Quote from Brian Fleetwood from the Santa Fe New Mexican article.