UF Grad Turned TV Star

Monday, 14 November 2011 20:58

After the end of Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, the lights of the Digital Worlds Institute dimmed and an audience of 25 University of Florida students and faculty members quieted.

They had gathered last month on a Wednesday night to watch UF alumna Kymia Nawabi, 30, compete in season two of Bravo’s Work of Art: The Next Great Artist.

Kymia passed the first round, but with 14 other artist competing to win a solo show at the Brooklyn Museum and $100,000, the stakes are high and the competition is fierce. We rang up Kymia to talk about life in the Big Apple and how she got through the pressure and the tears, (that means you, Kathryn!).

By Lauren Gonzalez

All Glitz and Glam?

A reality TV star does have many perks, like living in Manhattan and having access to quality resources, but the Work of Art atmosphere reminded Kymia of her school experience, this San Diego born artist told us. The competition and self-discipline required as an artist started developing in college.

Before becoming a contestant, Kymia earned her undergraduate degree from East Carolina University and then received her master’s in fine arts in drawing and painting from UF in 2006. “Any time a group of artists are put in the same sort of facility, it’s a natural instinct to always want to 'wow' everyone,” Kymia says. “I think that’s why I liked being on Work of Art so much. I had that familiar feeling of competitiveness.”

Like similar reality competition-based shows (think Top Chef or Project Runway) each episode pressures contestants from diverse backgrounds to deliver under the wire, ultimately judged by art world heavyweights and high-profile guest judges.

“Even when you’re not surrounded by other artists, you need to be aware that they’re out working hard and maybe harder than you,” she says. Hard work doesn’t intimidate Kymia. At one point, she juggled four jobs so she could pay her bills while still making art.

“Consistently paid jobs don’t exist for a fine artist, and that’s reality,” she says. “Being an artist, the biggest reality is when you’re not known yet and you don’t have gallery representation and you’re past the emerging artist stage, you have to work other jobs. And, yes, I mean plural.”

Kymia moved from Gainesville to New York in the summer of 2006 after she graduated, and she’s lived in Brooklyn, Queens and now Manhattan. Although the reality show took place in Manhattan, she didn’t have a strong sense of familiarity with her surroundings.

“They could’ve placed you in your childhood home, and it wouldn’t have mattered,” she says. “You still wouldn’t have felt like you knew a damn thing. Being a part of the experience was so suspenseful. It was like being in another planet.”

(At press time, the competition was down to 12 contestants and Kymia was a clear favorite.)

Surviving the Competition

Kymia credits her strong support group in overcoming adversities. Her sister, Kathy, sent her the application and urged her to apply. She also stays in touch with UF professors.

“I will never forget my last year of grad school, 2005 to 2006,” she says. “I feel like they really marked a period in my work and helped me reach a level I couldn’t have on my own.”

Richard Heipp, director and a professor of the School of Art and Art History, kept in contact with Kymia after she graduated.

“I’ve been a mentor to her since she left school,” Heipp said.

On the annual trips to New York with graduate art students, he always visits Kymia. On the last trip, he and his students went to one of her gallery exhibitions.

“When you see her work and interact with her, you see that she’s incredibly talented and always a very hard worker, too,” he says. “She was always willing to make sacrifices for her work and question her work. I’ve been a professor for over 30 years, and I think her thesis work was one of the best since I’ve been here.”

Although confident in Kymia, Heipp was still concerned about the pressure of being on a reality show. “To be honest, I was a little worried when I heard she was going to be on Work of Art, even though she’s a very hard worker and she’s incredibly talented,” Heipp says.

“In a way, this isn’t the way the real art world works,” he says. “It’s not what art practice is like. On the show, they work on a cycle, and there’s a certain number of days. Everyone has to make something in the same space and time. In a way it equalizes all the artists.”

Jerry Cutler, professor emeritus at UF’s school of art, has been teaching painting and drawing since 1981. He recalls working with Kymia and suggesting that she try sketching. Kymia began using polymer clay, sculpting figures and painting them, and Cutler praised her imagination.

“She is bright, in general like a spark plug,” he says. “In some ways, she’s modest but confident in her ability.”

"Never stop making art, unless you really don't want to do it," Kymia advised aspiring artists. "And apply to anything and everything."

Watch her progress every Wednesday at 9 p.m. on Bravo.

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