Contemporary art: veiled figures by Kevin Francis Gray
June 16, 2016 by pcarvalho
Kevin Francis Gray is an Irish sculptor recognized by the contemporary art sculptures of veiled figures.
The artist works primarily with bronze and marble to create idealized figures draped with fabric in the style of Neoclassical or Baroque figurative sculptures. Though, unlike gods or royalty that one might expect to see rendered in such incredible detail, Gray instead creates anonymous depictions of regular individuals he encounters near his studio in London, often people struggling with addiction or other difficult, real-world issues.
While some artists now rely on laser cutting or other machines to cut from marble, Gray instead works by hand, from start to finish, chiseling away just like other artists of the17th or 18th century.
Gray studied at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin, the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, and received an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmith College in London. His work is represented by Pace gallery where he had his first exhibition.
See more veiled sculptures HERE!
Kevin Francis Gray was born in1972, Northern Ireland, and has generated bodies of work which address the complex relationship between abstraction and figuration. His work has been included in exhibitions at the Royal AcademyUK; Museum of Contemporary Art of the Val de-Marne,France; Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam; Palazzo Arti Napoli, Italy; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel; Art Space, New York, USA, and many other places worldwide.
"The resulting works portray these subjects—often with personal histories marred by contemporary demons such as addiction—with dignity and importance, yet they also express a somber, contemplative quality emphasized by the artist's consistent shrouding of his subject's faces."
Meet more of his artworks HERE!