Kevin Sloan

What the Soil Dreamed

2021

Kevin Sloan is a Denver-based painter working primarily with acrylic on canvas with forays into drawings, paintings on paper, and recently, ceramic and mixed media 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 his high school graduation that he would study art in college. Kevin received a BFA in painting from Tyler School of Art in 1981 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 curiosity and love of travel 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, and Santa Fe. All these locales have had a lasting impact on his practice. Kevin’s work is characterized by curiosity and bemusement toward the natural and human-made world. His frequently symbolic paintings are part of an ongoing inquiry into the relationship between the marvel of the natural world and the mundane and often blunt reality of the modern era. 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 world. 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, Florid; and the Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona. Kevin currently works in a converted church in the historic Denver neighborhood of Globeville where in addition to painting, he grows flowers and vegetables in the summer months. He shares his life with his husband Mark and two spirited Labradoodles, Otis and Poppy.