Kiara Pelisser — Glass & Extended Media

• Home
• News
• Mixed Media
• Blown Glass
• Commissions
• Biography
• Résumé
• Artist Statement

Biography

Kiara Pelissier was born in Mexico in 1976 to a South American father and a North American mother. She was raised in the United States and represents the fourth generation of artists in her family. Her father is a goldsmith / ironsmith, her mother a surface designer / textile artist, her grandfather was a marine painter, and both her grandmother and great grandmother were sculptors. More information about her family and their work can be found at www.pelissiergalleries.com.

Although Kiara worked with crafts throughout her school years, she concentrated on music and gymnastics and began college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a flute performance major. In 1995 she first visited the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina where she took a beginning glassblowing class. She was instantly hooked and, leaving music behind, she continued to study glass through workshops at Penland, Pilchuck Glass School, Haystack Mountain School, and the Corning Studio as both a student and a teaching assistant.

In 2000 she received a BFA in Glass from the Cleveland Institute of Art in Cleveland, Ohio. After graduation, thirsty for real life experience in the studio art world, she spent three and a half years working for artists such as Marc Petrovic and Michael Schunke, after which she made plans to attend graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Richmond, Virginia in order to study with professor Jack Wax. Kiara received her MFA degree from VCU in 2006 and continues to work in Richmond. She has taught glassblowing at VCU, Haystack, and Penland, along with various workshops in private studios and institutions. She has exhibited nationally, and her works can be found in numerous public and private collections throughout the Richmond area and the East Coast.