Memento: Lady Slipper Orchid Painting

Kevin Sloan is a Denver based painter working primarily with acrylic on canvas and occasionally drawings and paintings on paper. 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. Sloan’s work is characterized by curiosity and bemusement toward the natural and human-made world. The often 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. Recurring paired themes are fragility and strength, wonder and sorrow, and loss and resiliency. 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.