Muyassar Kurdi

Palestinian-American Interdisciplinary Artist based in NYC

My name Muyassar in Arabic means “to make life easy”

Muyassar Kurdi (b. 1989 in Chicago) is a New York City-based interdisciplinary artist. Her work encompasses sound art, extended vocal technique, performance art, movement, painting, analog photography, and film. She currently focuses on interweaving electronic instruments into her embodied voice performances, stirring a plethora of emotions from her audience members through ritualistic chants, meditative movements, and noise.

Kurdi was a finalist in the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship for Combined Disciplines 2023 as well as the American Composer Forum. She was awarded a Roulette Intermedium 2020 commission and 2022 artist residency (with support from Jerome Foundation), and is also a recipient of the Queens Fund New Works Grant, NYFA City Artist Corps grant, and Puffin Foundation grant. Recent residencies include Harvestworks and The Watermill Center with OPERA ensemble. Love is Blue, Kurdi’s solo interdisciplinary exhibition, opened in the Fall of 2023 at LaMaMa Gallery in NYC.

Performance highlights include Poetry Project, Roulette Intermedium, Center For Performance Research, Lincoln Center, The Rubin Museum of Art, Issue Project Room, Cafe OTO, Chicago Cultural Center, Center for Contemporary Art Laznia, Fridman Gallery, Zaratan - Arte Contemporânea, and Judson Memorial Church as well as exhibitions and film screenings (solo and group works) at VIERTE WELT, Trieze Gallery, Knockdown Center, Queens Museum, Spectacle Theatre, and Anthology Film Archives. She taught workshops in movement and voice most notably in Portugal at Zaratan - Arte Contemporânea, Bilgi University and Cultur in Istanbul Turkey as well as a MoMA PS1 in NYC.