Kiffi Diamond

At The Beach
20” x 16” x 2”, Assemblage on wood panel
SOLD

Center Stage
12x12 inches, Mixed Media, 2019

$450

Bustle Bugs
Mixed Media 16 x 12 inches, 2019
$500.

Mission To Mars
12 x 12 inches Mixed Media, 2019
$450.

Long Tall Sally
16 x 12 inches, Mixed Media , 2020
$500.

Rage Hands
20 x 16 inches, Mixed Media, 2019
$700.

Predator
16 x 12 inches, Mixed Media, 2020

$500.

Stepping Out
12 x 12 inches, Mixed Media, 2018
$450.

The Livingroom
16 x 20 inches, Mixed Media, 2017
$500.

The Graphite Group
7 x 7 inches, Mixed Media , 2019
$150

The Maine Group
7 x 7 inches, Mixed Media, 2018
$150

Bio

Kiffi Diamond is collage and assemblage artist who has been engaged in design and the arts since 1972. Born into a family of artists in Los Angeles, Kiffi traces her interest in collecting and collage back to an early passion for Victorian ephemera. Using her signature style and strong design sense, she combines idiosyncratic materials into witty visual narratives.

Her works have been featured at museums and galleries across the country at venues including Attleboro Museum (Attleboro, MA), National Collage Society (Cuyahoga Falls and Kirkland, OH), Moorhead State University (Moorhead, KY), Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum (Oradell, NJ).

Viridian Artists (New York, NY), Nexus Gallery (New York, NY), New Century Artists (New York, NY), Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (Brooklyn, NY), State University of New York (Buffalo, NY), The Katonah Museum of Art (Katonah, NY), Paramount Center for the Arts (Peekskill, NY), Northern Westchester Center for the Arts (Mount Kisco, NY), H. Pelham Curtis Gallery (New Canaan, CT), and Ridgefield Guild of Artists (Ridgefield, CT). Diamond was educated at Chouinard Art Institute (Los Angeles, CA), Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI), School of Visual Arts (New York, NY), and The New York Botanical Garden (New York, NY).

In addition to a life-long pursuit of the creative arts, Diamond also nurtured robust careers early on in graphic design and, later, in landscape design. For a decade ending in the 1980s, she ran her own design studio, working for a variety of clients from book and music publishers, to Memorial Sloan Kettering Center. In the early 2000s, Diamond parlayed her love of gardening into a full-fledged landscape design business, maintaining her belief that “landscape is like a living collage.” Since 2015, Diamond has devoted her energy and spirit to creating collages and assemblages full-time in her studio in Ridgefield, CT.

Statement

For the past four decades, I have combined disparate materials to create cohesive compositions and solve problems, generating quirky, compelling visual narratives. My principle technique is collage and assemblage. Informed by a strong sense of design and guided by my intuition, I arrange objects to permit an inner dialogue to unfold. I move components around instinctively, while articulating certain areas with drawing and painting, until the composition clicks into being. Whether I engage with natural or manufactured materials, I let the textures, shapes, colors and unique aspects of a particular set of objects guide my process. I use old, authentic stuff - rusty metal, vintage paper dolls, outdated fittings, seashells, antique toys, old tools, springs, utensils. I depend on the richness of character, patina, history and personality of these objects. The resulting assemblages may take the form of a figure or creature, sometimes alone, and sometimes in a tableau.

In addition to my collage and assemblage studio work, I have pursued robust careers in pre-digital graphic design and landscape design which have enlivened my artistic practice. Whether meeting a client’s need for a collaged book jacket, creating a cohesive landscape from a large plant palette, or crafting an off-beat assemblage from found objects to satisfy a personal impulse, my approach is the same. My creativity stems from an affinity for design, a design to explore idiosyncratic materials, and a curiosity to uncover meaning.

Solo Exhibitions

2003 Kiffi Diamond: Recent Works, Viridian Artists, New York, NY

Collage and Assemblage, H. Pelham Curtis Gallery, New Canaan, CT

2001 Game-boards, Nexus Gallery, New York, NY

Collage, Framings Gallery, Armonk, NY

Collage From Detritus, Nexus Gallery, New York, NY

1998 Works on Wood, Images Gallery, Briarcliff Manor, NY

Group Exhibitions

2018 50th Anniversary Exhibition, Viridian Artists, New York, NY

Member’s Juried Exhibition, Connecticut Women Artists, New Britain, CT

Common Threads, Viridian Artists, New York, NY

National Association of Women in the Arts Small Works, NAWA, New York, NY

The Really Affordable Art Show, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Brooklyn, NY

41st Annual Juried Show, Ridgefield Artists Guild, Ridgefield, CT

2017 A Political/Apolitical Holiday Show, Viridian Artists, New York, NY

40th Annual Juried Show, Ridgefield Artists Guild, Ridgefield, CT

New Directions ’17, National Juried Exhibit, Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY

Selfies, Viridian Artists, New York, NY

Juried Fine Arts Exhibition, Crooked Tree Arts Center, Petoskey, MI

2016 Detritus, Viridian Artists, New York, NY

2001 Anything Goes!,Katonah Museum Artists Association, Katonah, NY

Twelfth National, Viridian Artists, juror: Anne Lampe (Whitney Museum) New York, NY

Abstraction 2001, New Century Artists, New York, NY

3rd Annual Small Works Exhibition, Attleboro Museum, Attleboro, MA

Wish You Were Here, National Collage Society, Aurora, OH

Glue, New Century Artists, New York, NY

2000 Small Works, Top Priority, The Stage Gallery, Merrick, NY

23rd Annual Juried Exhibit, The Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield, CT

National Collage Society 16th Annual Juried Exhibit, Kirkland, OH

Small Works, Studio 4 West, Piermont, NY

National Juried Show, Studio 4 West, Piermont, NY

Wish You Were Here, National Collage Society, Cuyahoga Falls. OH

Eyes Wide Open, SUNY Buffalo, NY

1999 Fin De Siecle, Moorhead State University, Moorhead, KY

Preview, Nexus Gallery, New York, NY

Fabrications, Nexus Gallery, New York, NY

1999 The Katonah Museum Artists Association Juried Show, Katonah, NY

You Are What You Eat, Paramount Center for the Arts, Peekskill, NY

1998 Art of Women, Northern Westchester Center for the Arts, MT Kisco, NY

Preview, Nexus Gallery, New York, NY

Collage, Nexus Gallery, New York, NY

Summerfare ‘98, Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum, Oradell, NJ

Creative Career Experience

2015-present Artist making on collages and assemblages, Ridgefield, CT

2003-2017 Landscape Designer for residential clients in Westchester and Fairfield counties

1982-2004 Artist making folk art on wood and collage, Westchester County, NY

1972-1982 Graphic designer for a wide variety of clients, New York, NY, including:

Dover Books, G. Schirmer, Inc, Seventeen Magazine, Macmillan Publishers,

Memorial Sloan Kettering, Viacom, The Free Press, Employee Relations Law

Journal

Education

Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA - Life Drawing

Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI - Painting

School of Visual Arts, New York, NY - Graphic Design, Drawing, Illustration

New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY - Landscape Design

Professional Affiliations

Viridian Artists, Inc., New York, NY

Connecticut Women Artists (CWA), CT

The Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan, CT

The Katonah Museum Artists’ Association, Katonah, NY

The Ridgefield Guild of Artists, Ridgefield, CT