Website

http://www.kevintkelly.com

Relationship status

in a relationship

College / University

Art Academy of Cincinnati

Program

Sculpture

Graduation

10 May 1987

Member type

Artist

If you're an artist, what kind of art do you make?

Painting

I am...

a Postmodern Pop artist. Upon graduation from the Art Academy of Cincinnati in 1987, I moved to New York City where I worked as a studio assistant to Tom Wesselmann for six years. I currently live and work in the Greater Cincinnati area. In addition to having taught as an adjunct professor at The Art Academy of Cincinnati and the Baker-Hunt Foundation in Covington, KY, I have also written critical review for Cincinnati CityBeat, Dialogue magazine and New Art Examiner.

About my artwork

My work is decidedly of a “Neo-Pop” or “Post-Pop” nature. Infused with a postmodern sensibility, contemporaneous subject matter, and executed in a “hyper-chromatic” palette, the paintings are not only redolent of contemporary issues and politics, but excel as studies in formal definition, composition and color. Allowing for open-ended lines of query and interpretation without the burdensome weight of didactic pretense, the work is intended to establish a dialogue with the viewer vis-à-vis the painted image rather than to wag a finger sanctimoniously from an ivory tower like so much “Activist Art” does today. The work has been described as: “Roy Lichtenstein meets Dennis Hopper on Steroids.” It’s a wry, complex admixture of sardonic social commentary, the six o’clock news and the Sunday funnies. My work has appeared on the cover of New American Paintings in 2000 and 2003. The work has been exhibited extensively in numerous group and solo shows since 1993, including solo exhibitions with: Bruce R. Lewin Gallery (NYC), Alan Avery Art Company (formerly Trinity Gallery) (Atlanta), Kidder Smith Gallery (Boston), C-Pop Gallery (Detroit), The Dayton Art Institute (Dayton, OH),
and The Carnegie (Covington, KY).

Upcoming solo shows include: AVS Gallery (Cincinnati, OH) in April 2008, and Rymer Gallery (Nashville) in October 2008.

Artists I like

Cole Carothers
Michael Scott
Leslie Shiels
J.D. Biggs
Jason Franz
Aaron Kent
Tom Bacher
Terrance Corbin
Bryce Hammond
William Mize
Takashi Murakami
Tom Sachs
Jerome Witkin
Tom Wesselmann
Julian Opie
Debra Frieden
Michael Hurst
Jim Menkhaus
Donald Sultan
Dave Nestler
Peter Stanick
Gary Hume
Banksy

The centre of the artworld is

nowhere and everywhere