Kayla is an artist today based in Boston grew up in San Leandro, California in the 1970's. Her mother and father are from very different cultures from two parts of the world. Her mum being Finnish and her father from Iran. Consequently Kayla visited both Scandinavia and Iran as a child, more than once, which she believes, opened her eyes to a world of beautiful cultural variety, colour and design.
The family moved from California to Washington State [during the 1980's]. As a child her direction for life seemed centred on an education in business and as a young adult she gained a business degree from the University of Washington. It was perhaps her childhood natural attraction to design [Finnish in particular] and colour [perhaps the textile patterns of Iranian carpets] that initiated a desire in her to 'create'. To start with she took evening art classes then later studied art and obtained a degree in painting from University of Washington. Later she achieved a MFA from Boston University. These qualifications gave her all the encouragement needed to fuel an ambition to become a full time painter.
Recognition of her talent was first spotted in 1998 when she was given the Jurors Choice Award at the Jacob Lawerence Gallery (University of Washington) in a group show. What followed were several group exhibitions culminating in a solo exhibition at the Sacramento Street Gallery in 2004. Since that time Kayla has participated in many shows, both solo and groups exhibitions consistently. Last year she took part as an exhibitor, 2016-2017 Biennial, at the Centre for Maine Contemporary Art. Over time she has won numerous awards and painting prizes.
The art critic (and lecturer in Art in Maine, USA) Britta Konau in 2011 talked about Kayla's work in which she described Kayla's paintings as; "representational suggestiveness." And went on to say that: "...individual forms in the paintings themselves intimate that Mohammadi works from observation. However, these allusions to the three-dimensional world of objects and spaces feel more like afterimages of the observed."
The astute description of Britta Konau, was expanded on by the artist herself . “My paintings begin with a shape - a pier, a sunset or a bay – as a way to start a composition, but this is secondary to the formal arrangement of the painting. Colour, space and mark are the main components of my work. I draw from the landscape, but my interest is in abstraction. Through drawing and collage I work towards a simple expression of what I am seeing and feeling.” Kayla has said in the past th
