BRIAN KENNY

Monday, March 23, 2009

BRIAN KENNY

Brian Kenny’s graffiti induced, expressionist art features multi-panel paintings, individual pieces on raw canvas board or sheets of target practice paper.
Characterized by intense subjectivity of feeling and aggressively raw handling of materials, Kenny pushes the envelope in all aspects of his life. His figurative depiction is filled with symbols and content from different sources, rooted in the experience of being a part of New York City’s underground culture.
The artist’s work reveals a strong interest in male rituals. Painterly gestures take turns with graphics, often depicting muscular, athletic young men, thugs and mask-like faces that express an obsession with physical strength. Other frequently depicted imagery and word games on buildings, police, guns and rifles, complete the vocabulary.
The surface of the work, dense with writing, collage and seemingly unrelated imagery,
is covered with pithy messages. Images and words are crossed out so as to emphasize the importance of their presence. The fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them even more. Like Kenny’s plastic force of spiky marks, brisk clashes of blaring color and vagrant code-symbols, it makes you want to experience the work even more.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

TARGET SERIES

(excerpt from 5+5 gallery press release)

This [post] features a new series of large-scale drawings on old American police shooting targets. The drawings, made with the street-tested mediums such as sharpies, paint-markers, spray paint and tape, are layered over various images of gun and knife-wielding paper “criminals.” Kenny’s Targets act as background and catalyst for his rabid layering of line, text and figuration. The imagery explores and deconstructs the world of sports, the military, and urban cultures. Bling and guns; wrestlers and sneakers; soldiers and pimps—all and more are depicted in frenetic, obsessive image-making. These Targets often include text “cut-up” oscillating between autobiography and the absurd. They are a bold social response, the artist’s “firing back” at the cultural fixations of sex, violence, politics, and cyber media.

A number of Targets were created in collaboration with fellow artists: Slava Mogutin, Gio Black Peter, Christophe Chemin, Desi Santiago, Bearded Cunt of assume vivid astro focus, Jason Farrer, Sebastiano Mauri, and Billy Miller.

Warning Side (2008)
permanent marker on American shooting target paper
22.5" x 34"

Asstronaut (2008)
mixed media on American shooting target paper
22.5" x 34"

The Hole Wall (2008)
permanent marker on American shooting target paper
22.5" x 34"

Push Up Hunt (2008)
mixed media on American shooting target paper
22.5" x 34"

Shoot Thong (2009)
permanent marker, oil pastel on American shooting target paper
"20 x 29"

I Know By Now (2008)
permanent marker on American shooting target paper
22.5" x 34"

He's Such a Pig (2008)
collaborative drawing with Gio Black Peter
permanent marker on American shooting target paper
22.5" x 34"

No Choice Tonite (2007)
collaborative drawing with Ralph Hupke
permanent marker on American shooting target paper
22.5" x 34"

Undeercover (2008)

permanent marker on American shooting target paper
22.5" x 34"

Our Place (2008)
permanent marker on American shooting target paper
22.5" x 34"

Final Food (2007)
collaborative drawing with Christophe Chemin
permanent marker on American shooting target paper
22.5" x 34"

Eye Get It (2008)
permanent marker on American shooting target paper
22.5" x 34"

Dear Truman, You Are A Fool (2008)
collaborative drawing with Slava Mogutin
permanent marker on American shooting target paper
"20 x 29"

Everyday Promiss (2008)
collaborative drawing with Richie Rennt
mixed media on American shooting target paper
22.5" x 34"

Don't Move Man Pile (2008)

mixed media on American shooting target paper
22.5" x 34"

Amazing Beg (2007)
collaborative drawing with Sebastiano Mauri
mixed media on American shooting target paper
"20 x 29"

Everybody Parts (2008)
collaborative drawing with Slava Mogutin and Gio Black Peter
mixed media on American shooting target paper

Look Fast (2009)
permanent marker on American shooting target paper
"35 x 47"

Friday, March 20, 2009

CANVAS DRAWING SERIES

installation view @ Envoy

22, 23 (2006)
permanent marker on canvas board
20" x 24"

Good Square People (2006)
with Slava Mogutin
permanent marker on canvas board
11" x 14"

Blood Bath & Beyond (2006)
permanent marker on canvas board
9" x 12"

Explosive Matrioschkas (2006)
permanent marker on canvas board
8" x 10"

Yoko Ono Fucked a Midget (2006)
permanent marker on canvas board
8" x 10"

Slava's Lost Boy (2007)
permanent marker on canvas board
8" x 6"

Hold Your Heads (2006)
permanent marker on canvas board
16" x 20"

Bloody Gunter (2006)
permanent marker on canvas board
5" x 4"

All Over My Jersey (2006)
permanent marker on canvas board
7" x 5"

A Boring Question (2006)
permanent marker on canvas board
12" x 9"

2(2006)
permanent marker on canvas board
9" x 12"

Beg 1 (2006)
ink on canvas board
7" x 5"

Beg 2 (2006)
ink on canvas board
7" x 5"

Beg 3 (2006)
ink on canvas board
7" x 5"

Durag for Me (2006)
permanent marker on canvas board
12" x 24"

Dawg Stain (2008)
permanent marker on canvas board
16" x 12"

Top Alert Face (2008)
permanent marker on canvas board
6" x 8"

Sneaker Boy (2006)
permanent marker on canvas board
9" x 7"

Remember Me Silky Freckly (2008)
permanent marker on canvas board
11" x 14"

Love is in my Hair (2008)
permanent marker on canvas board
14" x 18"

Magic Popsicle (2006)
permanent marker on canvas board
16" x 12"

I Created Money (2006)
permanent marker on canvas board
9" x 7"

How Much (2008)
permanent marker on canvas board
6" x 8"

A New Body Attack (2008)
permanent marker on canvas board
12" x 24"

Thursday, March 19, 2009

ANIMAL HEAD ETCHINGS

This is a series of 25 etchings made on 5" x 7" gold, copper and silver foil originally designed for children with pre-printed animal patterns in the background. The artist's own version features self-portraits with different animals heads and displaying strange hand gestures. The series numbers 25 because they were made when the artist was 25 years old. Each etching is sprayed with a glossy fixative, mounted on wood, framed with plexi.