Biography: About the Artist
K.A. Colorado, Visual Artist and Sculptor
Artist-in-Residence at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Washington, D.C.
Artist-in-Residence at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), Prince George, Canada
International artist and sculptor K.A. Colorado has spent over three decades working in various climatic conditions throughout the world, using ice and snow as both a medium and subject, and portraying environmental, climate, and Polar concerns and significance through his art.
K.A. Colorado served as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Artist-In-Residence. He was appointed by NOAA in 2014 to begin a series of work in 2015 which he completed in 2016. As part of his role with the U.S. federal government, K.A. Colorado created and installed a site-specific national sculpture for the National Marine Sanctuaries program for permanent exhibition. The sanctuary sites include preserved and protected areas on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as well as in the Gulf and Great Lakes regions. His position with NOAA is a result of K.A. Colorado’s track record of climate and deep cold environmental representation throughout his art career, including his work with Ice Core themed sculptures and projects completed over the past twenty-year period.
K.A. Colorado was Artist-in-Residence at the University of Northern British Columbia, in Prince George, B.C., Canada, where his work has been installed as part of the University’s permanent collection, and where he conducted art projects, demonstrations, and lectures on Polar and environmental art, and created cross-disciplinary work in art and science, from 2018 to 2019. Prior to his art residency, during the year 2017, K.A. Colorado’s series of masterpiece paintings and sculptures were acquired by the University for permanent exhibition as part of UNBC’s permanent collection.
K.A. Colorado’s environmental art installation at a retreating glacier in the Yukon was featured and published, along with his paper co-authored with three geoscientists, in the June 2018 issue of the Journal of Maps.
Three of the artist’s masterpiece Iceberg Paintings were acquired and permanently installed at The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Western Regional Center in Seattle, Washington, in 2019.
K.A. Colorado was invited by the prestigious Environment Magazine to prepare a visual essay, “The Climate Change Art of K.A. Colorado” which was published in August 2022. An editor’s introduction accompanied the article.
On Earth Day, April 22, 2025, K.A. Colorado’s environmental triptych featuring the three paintings Retreat • Glacier • Ablation was unveiled at a special ceremony at Douglas College in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada, and was dedicated as a permanent installation in the college Library.
K.A. Colorado’s Ice Core Melt – On Thin Ice series of wall sculptures have been permanently installed in the Vancouver Maritime Museum, the University of Northern British Columbia, the Hakai Cryosphere Node at UNBC (sponsored by the Hakai Institute), and King George Secondary School (Vancouver School Board). Currently an installation is also in development at the University of Portland. Based on his propriety series of Ice Core sculptures, this sculptural work focuses on Polar ice, deep cold, and melting ice sheets.
Mr. Colorado has also worked in the Antarctic by invitation of the Argentine Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto, and the Dirección Nacional del Antártico (National Institute for Antarctic Relations) of Argentina. During his residency in the International Cooperation Art Program, Mr. Colorado was one of only a few artists selected from around the world to perform art installations on the Antarctic continent. While in Antarctica, he visited several scientific and historic bases, and completed a series of five “Art in Antarctica” groups of works involving sculpture, on-site installation, photography, and video.
In February 2015, K.A. Colorado completed a commissioned series of paintings on the Arctic for the Vancouver Maritime Museum in British Columbia, Canada. Entitled 60 Seconds in the Canadian Arctic, this painting group was on exhibition at VMM for three years, during which time the artist also gave a lecture and presentation of his work.
K.A. Colorado’s paintings, prints, and sculptures have also been acquired in permanent acquisitions collections at private and public institutions internationally, including: Lewis & Clark Law School, Portland, Oregon, USA (2015); Neveh Shalom Synagogue, USA (2015); Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon, USA (2016); Clark Library, University of Portland, Portland Oregon, USA (2016); University of Tierra del Fuego, Ushuaia, Argentina (2016); Museo del Fin del Mundo (Museum of the End of the World), Rio Grande, Argentina (2016); Museo del Fin del Mundo, Ushuaia, Argentina (2016); CADIC-CONICET (Centro Austral de Investigaciones Cientificas) – Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas), Ushuaia, Argentina (2016); University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, B.C., Canada (2017); King George School, Vancouver, B.C. (2019); and St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, B.C. (2023).
K.A. Colorado’s documentary film Melt concerning diverse perceptions and dialog on climate change and deep cold, and featuring the artist’s ice-themed sculptures, photographic art images, and Antarctic footage, can be seen posted at various sites on the internet.
In September 2016, Mr. Colorado also completed a new film entitled Carbon which focuses on carbon sequestration in the oceans. The film premiered at a lecture presentation given by K.A. Colorado at the Garaventa Center at the University of Portland in Oregon in early October 2016.
Working in conjunction with the Simon Fraser University, the University of Washington at Tacoma, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, K.A. Colorado completed a site-specific art installation on location in the Yukon Territory of Canada. The project, completed in August 2016, was a culmination of several years of work creating a Boundary themed sculptural installation. Working with the Arctic Institute of North America located in the Kluane National Park Reserve, Mr. Colorado created site-specific art installations at several geographical and geological sites, including Kluane Lake and Kaskawulsh Glacier in the St. Elias Mountains.
The artist also presented a lecture at the University of Portland (Portland, Oregon) in October 2016. Titled The Moral Implications of Deep Cold and Polar Ice on the Climate Change Debate, the lecture was given at the Garaventa Center to an appreciatively packed audience.
As a sculptor and visual artist working exclusively in ice and snowpack particular to the Arctic and Antarctic regions, Mr. Colorado has been featured in many exhibitions and scientific conferences worldwide over the past two decades. His presentations have included the following: Presentation at the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) XXXII International and Open Science Conference at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (13 – 25 July 2012, Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.); Exhibition in the Antarctic Art and Culture International Conference & Festival IV (5 – 9 September 2012, Buenos Aires, Argentina), featuring the artist’s sculptural work performed on site on the Antarctic continent; and Solo exhibitions at the Provincial Museums of Tierra Del Fuego (September and October 2012, Ushuaia and Rio Grande, Argentina).
In addition, K.A. Colorado was Chairman of the Russian Perm World Cup International Competition, and Founder of its organization and its annual Ice and Snow Sculpture Competitions, which he co-founded in 1995 and helped organize over several years until 2011.
From 2011 to 2012, K.A. Colorado was invited by the Port of Portland (Oregon, U.S.A.) to exhibit a large paintings installation on climate, Arctic, and ice conditions at the Portland International Airport, which he dedicated to the victims of the March 2011 Japan Tsunami. This large-scale exhibition was installed in the main terminal lobby of the airport where it was viewed by travelers and visitors alike.
Mr. Colorado has also had extensive artistic collaborations with scientists throughout the world on Polar themes, and has created a proprietary series of Ice Core Sculptures which portray scientific dialogue on climate. This body of work involves international dialogue with scientists and associated professionals working in the climate change and Polar studies fields. To date, K.A. Colorado has completed nearly 100 Ice Core Sculptures in actual scale which contain the scientific data, writings, findings, lectures, geological material, and scientific/historical samples submitted to him by scientists and professionals for inclusion in his art, and which he has presented as fine art that communicates the science of Arctic and climate conditions.
In 2010, Mr. Colorado was selected as a speaker and presenter in the TED events, where he spoke on Arctic and climate issues and was invited to exhibit his artwork.
K.A. Colorado has produced a large body of work that includes art which is environmentally themed and which focuses on climate issues as well as the Polar regions. This art includes 400 three-dimensional and two-dimensional works created by K.A. Colorado and available for viewing. Mr. Colorado maintains his residence in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, and works internationally.
Mr. Colorado’s extensive experience in Polar and ice conditions and art and science is unsurpassed, and his works of art on environmental, climatic, Arctic, and Antarctic concerns are valuable in the significance of the message that they portray and in the artistic beauty that they provide. The artist’s body of work combines the science and dialogue regarding climate change with the portrayal of ice and snow resource as the primary theme.
K.A. Colorado – Art and Science Series and Exhibitions
From working in Antarctica and the Patagonian Ice Fields, to creating snow sculptures in Alpine locations, to installing site-specific environmental sculptures in the Arctic regions, K.A. Colorado has performed art applications all around the globe, and created art that has dealt with the global conditions associated with climate change.
His artwork has taken him atop precarious icebergs, alongside rugged mountains in alpine regions, and into the hot desert. He has fabricated steel pyramids in Culiacan, Mexico, carved monumental stone in the Czech Republic, and created the first-ever kinetic snow sculpture which was unveiled in Perm, Russia near the Ural Mountains in 2006.
Invited by the Arctic Scientific Research Library at CADIC-CONICET in Ushuaia, Argentina, in the Tierra Del Fuego, by noted geologist and glaciologist Dr. Jorge Rabassa, and traveling there in 2004, K.A. Colorado has studied and visually captured icebergs in his paintings and sculptures to depict the changing glacial conditions in the Antarctic and Arctic since the year 2001.
As the only artist invited among a group of renowned scientists and climatologists from around the world, K.A. Colorado participated in the International Conference on Hydrometeorological Security held in Moscow, Russia, in September 2006. His paper on Aesthetic Considerations and Implications of Snow Mass and Texture Changes was published and posted at the Conference, which was attended by climatologists and geologists whose areas of expertise include the Polar and Arctic regions.
Selected by the Dirección Nacional del Antártico (Antarctic Institute of Argentina) in 2011 and invited through a special invitation to create art installations in Antarctica, K.A. Colorado completed five groups of Antarctic Art Series works on the white continent in 2012, including Banquet in the Antarctic, Pink Hearts on Ice, and Caution Antarctica. His artworks performed in Antarctica were documented by a documentary film crew whose film features K.A. Colorado and his art installations on-site in the Antarctic.
K.A. Colorado is the creator of the Ice Core Sculpture Series featuring ice core sampling sculptures imbedded with scientific writings, professional text, geologic material, and animal DNA from throughout the world. His several series of Ice Cores feature international dialogue on climate involving notable individuals and experts from the fields of glaciology, geology, oceanography, and maritime archaeology. These noted individuals include Dr. James E. Hansen of NASA (U.S.A.); Dr. Jorge Rabassa of CADIC-CONICET (Argentina); Dr. Alexander A. Vasiliev of the Hydrometeorological Center in Moscow (Russia); Dr. James P. Delgado of the Vancouver Maritime Museum (Canada) and NOAA (U.S.A.); Dr. John J. Clague of Simon Fraser University (Canada); Neil J. Weenink, Engineer and Lecturer (Australia); Lynne Cox, Arctic and Antarctic long-distance swimmer (U.S.A.); Col. Ron Smith, former commander of “Operation Deep Freeze” at the Amundsen-Scott U.S. Scientific Base in Antarctica (U.S.A.); and Morteza Anoushiravani, Director of Global Water Resources for the humanitarian organization Mercy Corps.
Invited to exhibit and speak worldwide, K.A. Colorado has exhibited his artworks in many cities around the globe, including Vancouver, B.C., Canada; Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.; St. Petersburg, Russia; Moscow, Russia; Lima, Peru; Barcelona, Spain; Toronto, Canada; San Francisco, California, U.S.A.; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Ushuaia, Argentina; and St. Moritz, Switzerland.
His exhibitions include The Cow on the Iceberg series of paintings, sculptures, and lectures at the West Vancouver Library in B.C., Canada; a TED talk and art exhibition at the TED Conference in Monterey, California, U.S.A.; the Earth Art Show international exhibition curated by K.A. Colorado in Troutdale, Oregon, U.S.A.; and a solo exhibition entitled Polar Dialogue 2009 at the LA Artcore contemporary art museum in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. He has also created historical murals on permanent exhibition at educational and institutional sites in the U.S.A. including in the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles, California.
K.A. Colorado’s international projects link countries with the global scientific and arts communities, and explore issues and topics regarding climate and environmental concerns. These projects include the following: The Pemberton / Mount Meager land slide geological event field study, August 2010, in conjunction with the Simon Fraser University of Vancouver, B.C., Canada; The Castle Canet-en-Roussillon Ice Core Project, May 2010, in conjunction with Canet, France; and the Volcano Ice Core project in several corresponding countries, including Chile, Argentina, and Africa.
K.A. Colorado has organized and judged international snow competitions throughout the world, and founded the Winter Arts Festival and Ice and Snow Competition in Perm, Russia (Western Siberia) in 1995, an annual event that continues today. He has traveled to the Arctic and Antarctic by invitation of Canadian, U.S., and Argentine governmental organizations.
Recipient of the Los Angeles Contemporary Art Museum LA Artcore Award in 2008 as Artist of the Year in recognition of his prolific work in climate and environment-themed art, K.A. Colorado’s work has joined science and art together aesthetically, conceptually, and intellectually. Through his many series of painted canvases, photographic images, and three-dimensional sculptures, K.A. Colorado continues to explore the historical and human ramifications of our changing climate and environment.
K.A. Colorado’s A 60-Second Time Lapse of the World paintings installation, and Ice Cathedral painting exhibition, were seen on public display at the Portland International Airport, sponsored by the Port of Portland, Oregon, U.S.A., from 2011 through 2012.
During the years 2012 to 2014, K.A. Colorado was given exhibitions in museums in Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Tierra del Fuego, Rio Grande, and Ushuaia.
His work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration includes sculpture creations for the thirteen Marine Sanctuary sites in the United States. K.A. Colorado was the first sculptor to be appointed Artist-In-Residence by NOAA.
K.A. Colorado’s Vancouver Maritime Museum paintings exhibition opened on February 26, 2015, at the prestigious museum in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
In early February 2015, Mr. Colorado’s oil painting Othello’s Gribskov Run was installed at the prestigious Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A., as a part of its permanent collection.
The Vancouver Maritime Museum, in B.C., Canada, unveiled K.A. Colorado’s On Thin Ice wall sculpture in February 2018. As one of his group of Ice Core Melt sculptures, this three-dimensional artwork emulates ice cores on a melting ice surface, and incorporates historical references to the Arctic and the Northwest Passage.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Western Regional Center, acquired three of K.A. Colorado’s Masterpiece Group of oil-on-canvas paintings, the Iceberg Paintings Series, which were installed at NOAA in 2019. These three large paintings, entitled Iceberg Ocean Blue, Twin Icebergs, and Iceberg with Red Sky, and focusing on the environmental subjects of deep cold, Polar regions, and climate change, are permanently exhibited at the NOAA center in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.
King George Secondary School, with the Vancouver School Board, in B.C., Canada, unveiled K.A. Colorado’s third edition permanent installation Ice Core Wall Sculpture, from the On Thin Ice series, in the summer of 2019. In addition to creating the sculpture for the school, K.A. Colorado also conducted workshops for the students and gave lectures to classes, encouraging participation from members of the school’s Earth Club.
The University of Northern British Columbia, in Prince George, B.C., Canada, has on exhibition the K.A. Colorado second edition Ice Core Wall Sculpture – On Thin Ice, permanently installed in the Hakai Cryosphere Node at UNBC (sponsored by the Hakai Institute) in the autumn of 2019.
St. Paul’s Hospital, in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, has acquired two major artworks by K.A. Colorado which are permanently installed in the hospital: His triptych Gambling on Thin Ice in 2023, which is exhibited in the Division of General Surgery, and his painting Climate Change Displayed on Ice in 2024, which is exhibited in the Division of Endocrinology.
Douglas College, in New Westminster, B.C., Canada, permanently installed K.A. Colorado’s large oil paintings triptych entitled Retreat • Glacier • Ablation in 2025. The College held an official unveiling of the art installation on Earth Day, April 22, 2025, during a reception that was attended by members of the community as well as visitors from various countries. The three large paintings, which draw attention to the beauty and fragility of glacial ice and the importance of the preservation of Polar environments, are exhibited permanently in the College library, where they are viewed by students, faculty, staff, and the community.
K.A. Colorado Films
The artist has written and directed two art films on climate change and Polar related themes that have been screened at university lectures and conferences as well as posted on various platforms for online viewing, and that feature his artworks as a visual portrayal of environmental issues and concerns.
The first film, entitled Melt, features interviews and dialogue on climate change, photographic art images, and ice-themed sculptures. K.A. Colorado’s film Melt can be viewed on YouTube at the following link:
The second film, entitled Carbon, features poetry, choreography, interviews, Antarctic footage, and sculptures representing the health of the oceans and the process of ocean acidification. K.A. Colorado’s film Carbon can be viewed on YouTube at the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZNIdsgEv98
K.A. Colorado Publications
K.A. Colorado was invited by the prestigious Environment Magazine to prepare a visual essay entitled “The Climate Change Art of K.A. Colorado” which was published in August 2022. Featuring the artist’s paintings, sculptures, installations, and poetry, the article can be seen on the publication site Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development.
The artist’s on-site art installation photographic images of his environmental project entitled Boundary, completed at a glacier site in the Yukon, and his paper co-authored with three geoscientists, were published in the June 2018 issue of the Journal of Maps. Both the art installation and the paper depicted climate change and the disappearance of the Slims River at Kluane. The paper, entitled “‘Boundary’: Mapping and Visualizing Climatically Changed Landscapes at Kaskawulsh Glacier and Kluane Lake, Yukon”.
K.A. Colorado has also written and published three poetry books featuring his extensive and poignant series of poems on the Arctic, Antarctic, and Polar regions. The poetry books, entitled Antarctica Weeping, Song of the Iceberg, and Into Antarctica, were published in 2021 and 2022. The first two books also include images of some of his paintings and sculptural artworks. The third book includes photographs by Captain Eugenio Luis Facchin taken in Antarctica as part of a collaborative project with the artist K.A. Colorado.
Partial List of Publications:
Shugar, D. H., Colorado, K. A., Clague, J. J., Willis, M. J., & Best, J. L. (2018). ‘Boundary’: mapping and visualizing climatically changed landscapes at Kaskawulsh Glacier and Kluane Lake, Yukon. Journal of Maps, 15(3), 19–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2018.1467349
Colorado, K. A. (2022). The Climate Change Art of K.A. Colorado. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 64(4), 13–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/00139157.2022.2089529
Colorado, K.A. (2021). Antarctica Weeping.
ISBN: 978-1-7778397-0-3.
Vancouver, Canada: Self-published.
Colorado, K.A. (2021). Song of the Iceberg. ISBN: 978-1-7778397-1-0.
Vancouver, Canada: Self-published.
Colorado, K.A., and Facchin, Eugenio Luis, (Mary R. Tahan, Ed.). (2022). Into Antarctica: The 2021–2022 Austral Summer Season in the Antarctic Southern Hemisphere. ISBN: 978-1-7778397-2-7.
Vancouver, Canada: Self-published.
Education
K.A. Colorado earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture and Design at the California State University at Los Angeles, where he received his degree in 1974.
On-line Sources About K.A. Colorado
Wikipedia – The Wikipedia page on K.A. Colorado and his art can be seen at the following link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._A._Colorado
University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) – A video interview with the artist, conducted by the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, B.C., Canada, can be viewed at the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFHOWeBvkjU
Douglas College – The announcement of the official unveiling of K.A. Colorado’s environmental paintings triptych, permanently installed at the college library in New Westminster, B.C., Canada.