Kendra Sollars is an Arizona native currently working in video-based public installation. She received a B.A. in Art from The Ohio State University (2009) and claimed two National Championships in varsity synchronized swimming the same year. Sollars was a highly competitive synchronized swimmer for fifteen years. Her competitive swimming turned creative and professional as she worked as a head choreographer for the Arizona Desert Dolphins synchronized swimming team (2009-2012) and worked as an Artist/Athlete in the prestigious production of Cirque du Soleil’s O, in Las Vegas, Nevada (2011-2012). As a synchronized swimmer, Sollars explored narrative and form through movement and performance. She has adapted that experience into an interdisciplinary art practice that includes video, photography, performance, and installation. Sollars’s work explores our human interconnectedness with the natural world, particularly with water, often using her own physical form as the subject of her work. Her most recent work has been displayed at the Tempe Center for the Arts and Mesa Arts Center. Her collaborative work with artist Lauren Strohacker, Animal Land (2013), was awarded the Contemporary Forum Emerging Artist Grant (2014) by the Phoenix Art Museum and the Artist Research and Development Grant by the Arizona Commission on the Arts (2015). Sollars’s technical experience includes Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Lightroom and Premiere Pro. Sollars currently lives and works in Tempe, Arizona and was named one of the top 100 creatives in the city by the Phoenix New Times (2014).
Thinking about Civilization and its Creaturely Discontents, The Arts Beacon, artist feature, Grant Vetter, July 2016
'Animal Land' Art Project Puts Vanishing Native Species in Perspective, Los Angeles Times, Artist Feature, Liesl Bradner, Sunday January 10, 2016
Arizona Commission on the Arts Grants Fund 14 Innovative Projects, Jackalope Ranch: The Phoenix New Times Culture Blog, artist feature, January 2015
2015 Arizona Biennial Spotlights Phoenix Artists at Tucson Museum of Art, Phoenix New Times, Published Installation, Lynn Trimble, July 17, 2015
"Chaos Theory" Has Gone From Funky to Formulaic at Legend City Studios in Phoenix, Jackalope Ranch: The Phoenix New Times Culture Blog, Artist Review, Lynn Trimble, October 2014
Time for Chaos Theory 15!, Arizona Foothills Magazine, Artist Feature, Nicole Royse: October 2014
100 Creatives: Kendra Sollars, Jackalope Ranch: The Phoenix New Times Culture Blog, Artist Feature and Interview, Becky Bartkowski: September 2014
100 Creatives: Lauren Strohacker, Jackalope Ranch: The Phoenix New Times Culture Blog, Photo Feature, Becky Bartkowski: June 2014
Blue House Coffee Art Blog, Artist Feature and Interview, Sam Beger, May 2014