Kevin Kuenster
/ United States

PAINTING

 

Kevin Kuenster was born in Chicago in 1955. He lives and
works in the United States, in Hudson Valley, New York. He
graduated in 1978 from the Philadelphia College of Art. His
relationship with European and Italian art is pre-eminent: in
his works, one can read echoes of the Venetian Quattrocento
of Andrea Mantegna, as well as the Dutch one of Hieronymus
Bosch, between the poles of a pacified humanism and a
restless sense of predestination of Protestant origin. Recently
he has also begun to use the technique of fresco painting, with
explicit references to Etruscan and classical Roman art. He
combines ancient techniques with a strong desire to recount
the contradictions of the 21st century, not without subtle
symbolism and allegory.
In We will build a new nest with red ribbons, a painting on a
circular wood panel, nude figures wearing bird skulls as the
headgear of the Venetian “plague doctors” paddle through a
post-Diluvian scenario, threatened by horrific visions. On the
horizon the dawn (or sunset?) and in the sky storks carrying
red ribbons with which to build new nests, together.