Catamount Arts is pleased to present Trash Bits for Realism, an exhibition of expressive collage and assemblage by the artist Kevin O’Brien, on view from March 5 – June 14, 2019.
Artist and arts educator Kevin O’Brien graduated with a with BFA and from UMass/Amherst where he studied with the painter John Grillo. He also received an MEd from Boston State Teacher’s College, as well as a graduate Certificate in Instructional Media and MS in Computer Science from Boston University. Born in the 1950s and growing up in the 1960s, O’Brien was influenced by Abstract Expressionism, Be-Bop and Beat Generation work, as well as rock and roll and high energy jazz. A self-described proponent of the “Pan-Global, Industrial, Supra-Expressionism which attempts to utilize materials from global industrial culture within works created as art,” O’Brien’s juxtaposition of the bold expressionistic strokes and bright colors on the stark, bland industrial materials creates tension. It is his belief that all cultures have been absorbed into an industrial landscape and that it is “an artist’s job to rediscover culture, and re-declare it boldly, without hesitation, using the new vocabulary they have been given, because there is no going backwards.”
O’Brien’s work has been exhibited numerous venues, including the Danforth Museum, as well as Art Expo NYC, the Marbella Art Fair in Spain, Red Dot Art Fair as part of Art Basel in Miami, and Art Busan in Korea. For more information on the artist and his work, see http://www.klobart.com/.