Kevin Sloan is a Denver based painter working primarily with acrylic on canvas and occasionally drawings and paintings on paper and recently, ceramic sculpture.
Growing up in Des Moines, Iowa his early interest in art was nurtured by student classes at the Des Moines Art Center and in particular by their Artist in Residence, Frank Limone. It was clear upon high school graduation he would continue to study art in college.
He received a BFA in Painting from Tyler School of Art where he studied with Stephen Greene and Stanley Whitney. He continued his formal education at the University of Arizona studying with James G. Davis, where he received an MFA in Painting in 1984.
His restlessness and love of travel has led him to live and work in a wide variety of cities across the United States including San Francisco, New York City, New Orleans, Key West, FL and Santa Fe, NM. All these locales have had a lasting impact on his practice.
His work is ongoing inquiry into whether a painting can hold the qualities of wonder and awe amid the mundane and overlooked. This duality is reflective of our contemporary condition, one marked by dislocation and loss in the midst of the overwhelming and spectacular.
Additionally, he is interested in what it means to be a painter of the natural world in a time of such extraordinary change environmentally, politically and socially. Remaining aware of all happening around while avoiding topical reportage and editorializing, he assumes the role of a compassionate witness. Sloan’s hope is that compassion allows for empathy, which pushes away cynicism, which in turn allows curiosity and wonder to find a place in the work.
In addition to his studio practice, he has been a visiting artist in residence at universities around the United States and occasionally teaches upper level painting classes in Denver. He exhibits regularly in one-person and group exhibits around the country.
His work is found in numerous private and public collections worldwide including the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Florida and the Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona.
From: kevinsloan.com
