Artist: Kim Sandara

Kim Sandara is a queer, Lao/Vietnamese artist based in Northern Virginia. In 2016, she graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art, with a BFA in General Fine Arts. She makes abstract paintings inspired by music , stop motion animations, and is currently working on a graphic novel on her coming-out story. As Torpedo Factory’s summer 2019 post-grad resident, she animated a part of her coming-out story and donated a percentage of her art market sales there to LGBTQ+ nonprofits. She also worked together with a small local and national community of LGBTQ+ members and allies to create the Tiny Queer Zine, an accessible by-donation zine made up of queer stories. That same summer, she also held an after-hours event called “Being” at the National Museum of Women in the Art’s gifts shop. She is now the May- September 2020 Bresler Resident for VisArts working on pieces exploring her Lao identity. Kim’s art practice focuses on building community, sharing stories, intersectional identity and exploring the subconscious.