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Statement
Kevin has been represented by the Nicholas Treadwell Gallery since 1984 but from 1973 he has shown widely in public and commercial galleries.
Kevin has been based at the Chisenhale Studios in Bow, East London since 1987 and has undertaken various public commissions that include Wawa Shsh for Homerton Hospital, I love Hoxton for Hackney Council and Middleton Miner for Leeds Council.
Background: Kevin’s work is figurative, narrative even, now more than ever. His themes are urban life, human frailty, the squalor, violence and general untidiness of life, as well as its counterpart, the abundant humour that emerges from it and makes it bearable. In the past there was a more overtly political dimension to his work, reflecting a more or less left wing outlook on life and its problems, particularly those created by greed, class prejudice and injustice. Inevitably over time his way of expressing those concerns, which remain undiminished, has transmuted into a more amused, philosophical form.
Kevin has always worked in wood, constructing rather than carving. His early work was unpainted, and often represented animals as metaphors for other things. However, the anger of the subject matter seemed sweetened by the natural beauty of the materials, and he became suspicious of this. He regarded this fortuitous aestheticness as something of a snare and a delusion. He began painting his sculptures to avoid it, and has been doing so ever since. He has completed a number of public commissions, in painted steel or fibreglass for durability but the scale of his work has become smaller in recent years, resulting in more two-dimensional work, and reliefs.
In 2008 Kevin was asked to create a series of works for the Nicholas Treadwell Gallery in Aigen, Austria on the theme “Who Said Romance Was Dead?” There has since been a second series on the same theme. More recently he was invited to go to South Africa to take part in a number of projects on a Human Rights theme. Kevin says of his work “My sculptures are exciting, humorous and dynamic, echoing urban life. Underlying this humour is a more serious message about our society and the stresses and strains of modern life”.