Kim Manfredi is an American painter whose work moves fluidly between abstraction and representation. Her material-forward paintings are informed by art history, climate, and place. She earned her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 1988 and returned to complete her MFA in painting in 2009, studying under Grace Hartigan and Joyce Kozloff.
Early in her career, Manfredi was represented by C. Grimaldis Gallery and has held residencies at BoxoPROJECTS, RUC, the Vermont Studio Center, VCCA, and Maryland Art Place. Recent solo exhibitions include Bloom at Patricia Sweetow Gallery and Lady Lazarus at Royale Projects, both in Los Angeles. She was also featured in Tutto a Tempo at the Camus Museum in Breno, Italy.
In 2024, Manfredi was awarded the Torrance Art Museum Fellowship and attended the Cycladic Arts Residency in Paros, Greece. Her painting Sillmangreen was acquired by the Palm Springs Art Museum for its permanent collection.
She is currently preparing an exhibition of her Greek paintings and sculpture at the Torrance Art Museum in summer 2026 and is developing a solo exhibition and public commission for the Laguna Art Museum, opening in fall 2026.
I make paintings that move between abstraction and representation, using color, material, and surface to explore how social contracts mediate our experience of ourselves, each other, and the natural world. I return repeatedly to the ideas of barrier and passageway as guiding metaphors. They are structures that both protect and restrict, separate and connect.
Material is central to this inquiry. Texture, aerosol, and layered oil paint create surfaces that register resistance and permeability, allowing the painting itself to embody these tensions.
Landscape, the body, and iconic forms such as the temple, pyramid, and flag appear as sites where private experience and shared meaning intersect. Hand-gathered sand, spray paint, oil, and crayon produce a range of marks that remain rooted in painting. while pointing to the world.
Ultimately, my work aims to slow perception and create space for reflection. I see the handmade as a vital human practice.
EDUCATION
2009 MFA, Hoffberger School of Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore
2002 Advanced Studies in Venetian Plaster and Gilding, Sepp Leaf, New York
1988 BFA Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art, Cum Laude
1987 New York Studio Program, New York
MUSEUM ACQUISITION
2024 sillmangreen, oil and enamel on canvas 60: x 48” Object T 2024.77Palm Springs Art Museum
RESIDENCIES
2025 BoxoPROJECTS, Artist in Residence, March, 2025
2024 Torrance Art Museum Fellowship, Cycladic Arts, Paros, Greece
2024 RUC residency, Cividate Camuno BS, Italy
2024 Vermont Studio Center,, recipient of the VSC Grant
2022 Anderson Ranch, Topics in Painting, Shahzia Sikander & Holly Hughes
2021 Anderson Ranch, Advanced Painting, Christina Quarles, Cathy Opie, & Helen Molesworth
2010 VCCA, Artists Residency, Amherst, VA.
2009 Vermont Studio Center, Artist Residency, Johnson VT.
2009 Maryland Art Place, Critics Residency Program, Curator: Vincent Katz.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026 Bloom, Patricia Sweetow Gallery, Los Angeles California
2024 Lady Lazarus, Royale Projects, Los Angeles California
2024 Wayside Shrines Kneeland Co. Los Angeles California
2024 Forgotten Realm Asher Grey Gallery, Online Artsy
2023 Place of Wonder, Slate Contemporary, Oakland California
2011 Cells and Stars: New Paintings, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 Double Take, Kim Manfredi & Michael Todd, Royale Projects, Los Angeles Ca.
2025 Modern Light, curated by Elizabeth Armstrong et Valerie La Jolla Ca.
2025 And The Stars Look Very Different Today, Royale Projects,Los Angeles CA
2024 Tutto a Tempo: Camus Museum, Breno Italy
2023 Snapshot of Sunsets: California Abstraction Now: Royale Projects, Los Angeles CA
2022 Color: Visible Windows, Gong Gallery, Newport Beach, CA
2022 Cultural Cannibalism, CVAC, CA; Curator: Susan Myrland.
2022-3 Intersect Art Fair, Palm Springs California, Curator: Bernard Leibov.
2021 Artists Comment, Outdoor Invitational, CVAC, CA, Curator: B Schinsky
2018 Artist Council Exhibition, Palm Springs Art Museum, CA.
2015 With Silence Comes Peace, Silber Art Gallery, Baltimore, MD.
2010 185th Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, National
Academy Museum, New York, NY.
2009 Art Miami, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Miami, FL.
2009 Sublime Structure, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD.
2009 Conner Contemporary, Options Biennial Exhibition, Washington, DC.
2009/10 Sondheim Finalist Exhibition, Meyerhof Gallery, Baltimore, MD.
2009 Landscape Biology, Hemphill Fine Arts,, Washington DC.
PUBLICATIONS
2024 Desert Magazine, Is Perez Road the SOHO of our desert? Kent Blackburn
2022 Palm Springs Life Magazine, Inquiring Mind: Kim Manfredi, Steven Biller
2018 The Desert Sun, Artist Council Award Exhibition
2010 The Urbanite, Cells and Stars, Cara Ober
2010 New York Times, Academy Gives Art Some Wiggle Room, Karen Rosenberg
2010 & 2012 New American Painting
2009 Art News, December 2009, Sublime Structure, by Cara Ober
2009 The Baltimore Sun, A Closer Look at a “Body Of Work”, Tim Smith
2009 The Washington Post, Options, Unexpected Possibilities, Michael O’Sullivan
HONORS
2024 Vermont Studio Center VSC Grant
2021 Desert X Artists Relief Grant
2019 Board of Directors, Coachella Valley Artist Council, Professional Development
2018 Jack Farley Community Award for Painting
2010 Walter and Janet Sondheim Prize Semi Finalist
2009 Nominee, DCCA Biennial Exhibit
2008 Walter and Janet Sondheim Prize Semi Finalist
2008 Hoffberger & Polovoy Merit Awards
2007 Hoffberger & Polovoy Merit Awards
2005 Kristen Rita Strouse Foundation Artist Award
COMMUNITY SERVICE
2020 - 2025: Co-Founder and Organizer of Desert Open Studios Tour
2021: Coachella Valley Art Center, Painting Instructor for Veterans
2018 - 2020: Board Member, Coachella Valley Artists Council