Bio

Kira Sabin is an American nature and wildlife painter. They have a BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design majoring in drawing and painting. Their work combines impressionist ideals with realist techniques, often featuring animals or ghosts to create a comforting and nostalgic atmosphere in surrealist or naturalistic environments. Best known for their involvement in the Federal Duck Stamp Contest, they’re a strong advocate of animal and wetland protection. Their work has been featured on CBS Mornings, Buzzfeed, Hyperallergic, Audubon, Ducks Unlimited and more. Sabin’s drawing of a female Wilson’s Phalarope accompanies the 2024 federal duck stamp as its companion species. Other accomplishments include winning third place in the National Young American Creative Patriotic Art Competition in 2017, and having painted murals in their hometown of Hutchinson, Minnesota. They have been a part of eight group exhibitions and participates in MCAD’s annual art sale.

Artist Statement

My paintings, drawings, and mixed-media collages communicate human emotional and physical realities through the language of landscape, animals, and object connotations. Ranging in sizes from 8”x10” to 4’x5’ and combining a realistic and impressionist style, I create a nostalgic world often showcasing animals and familiar settings from my life. I typically use oil paint to explore depth of field, contrasting smooth brush strokes and thick palette-knife painting. Sometimes my goal is to create one cohesive scene, such as a turkey standing on the threshold of a city highway exit, confused and lost. And sometimes my goal is to combine many different scenes and perspectives to convey a fragmented idea.

An example of the fragmentation would be my 2019 work Coyote Run, 4’x4.5,’ a mixed-media oil painting. The scene depicts an unrealistic landscape colliding in one image. In the foreground, a coyote with a realistically rendered head but loose, flowing body runs across the canvas. In the background, an approaching car will potentially hit the coyote. Blending above the scene are three children, blurred and watching, and a disproportionate playground sits on top of the canvas behind them, tapped on, drawn in graphite and colored pencil. Then, a completely different setting and time collides to the right of the coyote. Night and day take place at the same time, and the lights of an ambulance are reflected in the side mirror of the car that the viewer is meant to be seated in.

The work speaks about temporality. The coyote could meet its fate by the approaching car; the kids are young and could witness the incident. The scene would play out in only a couple of seconds, but the day passes in the painting. Its nonsensicalness evokes an urgent sense of flashbacks meeting in one moment. Much of my work falls on a line between funny, absurd, and heartbreaking and is inspired by the composition and narration of film. I believe these dynamics hold true to real life, and I mix styles and subjects to best imply an insightful observation of our world.