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Detail of Kiria Koula’s front door window. Photo by Johnna Arnold.


Kiria Koula

San Francisco, CA


In 2014, I co-founded Kiria Koula in San Francisco, a space that presented contemporary art and ideas via two independent but equally important platforms: a gallery and a bookstore. I directed the space, created its vision and format, and curated all programming.

As a platform for experimentation and critical thinking, Kiria Koula encouraged a dialogue between different communities and disciplines with art. Kiria Koula was also committed to provoking challenging and meaningful experiences offering free lectures and events with scholars, cultural producers, and writers from the Bay Area and elsewhere.

The gallery featured new work by national and international emerging and mid-career artists and provided them with a platform for discussions around it. Exhibitions by Patricia L Boyd, Özlem Altin, Alejandro Cesarco, Jenny Monick, Teresa Baker, Benoît Maire, José León Cerrillo, Ilja Karilampi.

The bookstore highlighted the artist's role as researcher and thinker, rather than exclusively as producer of objects. In this context, artists were invited to bring in their current research interests, which they mapped via a selection of books and a series of public programs, and further developed through a series of written and visual contributions.
Bookstores by Julie Peeters & Scott Ponik, Angie Keefer & Sarah Demeuse, A.K. Burns, Benoît Maire, Paul Chan. Additional events by guests Alexandra Pappas, Kristina Lee Podesva, Philipp Greenlief, Claudia La Rocco, Anthony Huberman, and  Mark von Schlegell.

Read texts about the artists and special guests, as well as their exhibitions, bookstores, and events below all images.

Check out Kiria Koula’s Instagram and archived website on The Internet Archive.  

Special thanks to all the artists and guests who were part of KK’s program, the Bay Area’s arts community, and KK’s team, especially its graphic designers, Julie Peeters and Scott Ponik ♥.


© All texts and photos my own unless otherwise indicated.
 




Kiria Koula’s website screen recording.
Kiria Koula’s window.
View of exhibition by Ilja Karilampi and José León Cerrillo, and bookstore by Paul Chan. Photo by Johnna Arnold.

Read Cerrillo’s exhibition text and see all works exhibited.
Read Karilampi’s exhibition text and see all works exhibited.
Read Chan’s bookstore text and see his selection of books.


(Left) Patricia L Boyd. Untitled, 2015. (Right) Özlem Altin. Dangling, 2011.  Photo by John White. 

Read Boyd’s exhibition text and see all works exhibited.
Read Özlem’s exhibition text and see all works exhibited.
Benoît Maire. (Back) One Tool, 2015 and One Tool Repeated, 2015. (Front) Itself, 2015. Photo by Johnna Arnold. 

Read Maire’s exhibition text and see all works exhibition
and read Maire’s bookstore text and see his selection of books.
Jenny Monick & Teresa Baker, Installation view, 2015. Photo by Johnna Arnold.

Read Monick’s exhibition text and see all works exhibited.
Read Baker’s exhibition text and see all works exhibited.
Paul Chan offered two consecutive days reading the drafts of two chapters of a book he was writing at the moment: Odysseus as Artist: Part 1 and Part 2.

Read Chan’s bookstore text and see his selection of books.

Ilja Karilampi. The Chief Architect of Gansta Rap. 2009. Photo by Johnna Arnold. 

Read Karilampi’s exhibition text and see all works exhibited.
Alejandro Cesarco. Allegory, or, The Perils of the Present Tense, 2015. Photo by Johnna Arnold.

Read Cesarco’s exhibition text and see all works exhibited.
View of Kiria Koula’s bookstore with detail of Julie Peeters and Scott Ponik’s book selections.

Read Peeters and Ponik’s bookstore text and see their selection of books.
Jenny Monick. Standing-spelled. 2009. Photo by Johnna Arnold.

Read Monick’s exhibition text and see all works exhibited.
Benoît Maire. ha ha ha ha. 2015. Photo by Johnna Arnold.

Read Maire’s exhibition text and see all works exhibition and read Maire’s bookstore text and see his selection of books.
Talk about A.K. Burns’s Negative Space’s research process.

Read Burns’s bookstore text and see their selection of books.

Teresa Baker. Gnaw, 2015. Photo by Johnna Arnold.

Read Baker’s exhibition text and see all works exhibited.
Alejandro Cesarco. Musings, 2013. Photo by Johnna Arnold.

Read Cesarco’s exhibition text and see all works exhibited.
Reading of The Best Most Useless Dress by Claudia La Rocco. 
Performative talk by Angie Keefer & Sarah Demeuse.

Read Keefer & Demeuse’s bookstore text and see their selection of books.


Özlem Altin & Patricia L Boyd, Installation view, 2015. Photo by John White. 

Read Boyd’s exhibition text and see all works exhibited.
Read Özlem’s exhibition text and see all works exhibited.
José León Cerrillo. (Left) Substraction screen 7, 2015. (Center) POEM (free again), 2014. (Right) POEM (positions taken in public debate), 2015.

Read Cerrillo’s exhibition text and see all works exhibited.
Videos + interview: 8 Curating The Library recorded lectures + interview between Julie Peeters, Scott Ponik, and Curating The Library's creator Mortiz Küng.

Read Peeters and Ponik’s bookstore text and see their selection of books.
Book Launch of Today We Should be Thinking About & Lecture by Anthony Huberman.
Book Launch of Sundogz, by Mark von Schlegell. Co-presented with Marcella Faustini.

Talk Hip-hop, pop, and Greco-Roman epic by Alexandra Pappas.

View of the audience during Paul Chan’s talk Odysseus as Artist.


Read Chan’s bookstore text and see his selection of books.
Installation view of 8 Curating The Library recorded lectures + interview between Julie Peeters, Scott Ponik, and Curating The Library's creator Mortiz Küng.

Read Peeters and Ponik’s bookstore text and see their selection of books.
Talk Ni…Ni: La Flaque (Neither…Nor: The Puddle) by Kristina Lee Podesva.

Kiria Koula’s front door.
View of the intersection between Capp St and 22nd St from Kiria Koula’s front door.




    
     
                                                               Etcetera. 💬