Kenny is a multidisciplinary artist currently focused on growing a traditional oil painting practice. His new paintings are informed by 20 years of past and ongoing nature-focused explorations in photography, video, sculpture, installation, and the collection and presentation of found objects. At their root, these works are contemplating the act of seeing itself. How and what we see (and by extension how we think and behave) depends on the subjective lenses we use and what we choose to pay attention to. With this in mind, Kenny often includes ambiguous and distorted forms of common, overlooked natural phenomena. Through his work, Kenny seeks to ignite curiosity and wonder to light a path toward regenerating lost connections to the natural world around and within us.
Kenny’s approach to art making is deeply influenced by narrative-based authors of literature & genre fiction (ex. Richard Powers and Jeff Vandermeer) and auteurs of cinema (ex. Andre Tarkovsky), as well as figurative painters whose work feature a similar emphasis on humans in direct relationship with nature. Kenny is most inspired by certain paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and other Flemish masters, Caspar David Friedrich, and most recently, the Surrealists (especially Max Ernst and Yves Tanguy).
Kenny currently lives with his wife Maggie and son Cedar in St.Petersburg. In the next few years they plan to move 100 miles north to “The Floating Woods” located within the rural wilderness of Gulf Hammock Florida to start their long time dreams to live in nature, become master naturalists, grow a farm, and build an artist residency.
