Ken Cunningham
Artist Statement:
With my work, i’m interested in exploring the experience of the body in space. The sense that there is an energy underlying the interaction between your body and the space around it. That there is something beyond the seen. It’s the project of attempting to form meaning out of those experiences and reflecting that experience in the figures within my work.
My process is informed by this. I try to find a place of balance between the representational and the abstract by working with a certain amount of randomness in the mark making. I’m trying to find that edge between the seen and the felt. By introducing elements of abstraction, I cultivate marks I find engaging, which then guide me to more intriguing places than I would otherwise find using straight depiction. I like the tension between what the medium is showing me and the more realistic depiction of the image. It introduces an element of openness and ambiguity that I find very compelling when combined with more classically beautiful subjects.
Bio:
Ken Cunningham is an artist and multiple award–winning director.
As an artist, Ken strives to create work that is mythic, poetic, transformational and personal. Through his work, he paints the elusive tide that lies beneath what we perceive in the world around us. His paintings reveal the layers of feeling we sense but that are just out of cognitive reach.
Ken’s work has been exhibited as a part of group shows with Abend Gallery, Wow x Wow gallery, and as a part of the Surreal Salon 13 exhibition, at Barton Rouge Gallery, curated Thinkspace Art in association with Juxtapoz magazine. In 2021 Ken was privileged to have been commissioned to create seven paintings for Suntup Edition’s, limited edition publication of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. As well, his art work has been featured in the Infected by Art annual, on the website of Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, and in 2020 his work was nominated for an Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists (ASFA) Chesley award for best unpublished monochrome work.
As a director he has worked on projects for a diverse range of clients including Lego, Marvel, Lucasfilm and Universal Pictures, among others. His most recent project was The Lego Star Wars Summer Vacation special for Disney+.
Previous to his work in film and television, Ken spent 11 years as a professional dance artist, performing internationally with Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Le Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault (Montréal), Toru Shimazaki Dance (Japan) and Dancemakers (Toronto), under artistic director Serge Bennathan.
EXHIBITION HISTORY
2022
5 x5 project XIII (group show) Abend Gallery, Denver Colorado
2022
32ND ANNUAL HOLIDAY MINIATURES SHOW (group show) Abend Gallery, Denver Colorado
MicroVisions 5 (group show) WOWxWow online gallery
Cosmic Elixir (group show) WOWxWow online gallery
2021
Labyrinth of Dreams (group show) WOWxWow online gallery
Luminous Odyssey (group show) WOWxWow online gallery
Outwit the monster (group show) WOWxWow online gallery
WOW² (Volume V) (group show) WOWxWow online gallery
Stardust Antennas (group show) WOWxWow online gallery
Monochromagic 4 (group show) WOWxWow online gallery
Surreal Salon 13 (group show) Baton Rouge gallery, curated by Think Space Art in association with Juxtapoz magazine.
2020
Limitless 2020 (group show) Federation of Canadian Artists online Gallery
Vancouver, British Columbia
PUBLICATIONS
Illustrations for Margerat Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” limited edition, Suntup Press
Infected by Art 8
AWARDS
nominated for a 2020 Chesley award- best unpublished monochrome work.
SELECTED PRESS
Featured in Beautiful Bizarre magazine website art prize promo
EDUCATION
2021 SMART SCHOOL and private mentorship Brad Kunkle
2021 Private mentorship Ray Bonilla
2020 SMART SCHOOL mentorship Rebecca Leveille-Guay
2020 Private mentorship Vanessa Lemen mentorship
1998-2000 Studio M animation program
1987-1990 Royal Winnipeg Ballet school professional program
CONTACT
Phone: 647 339 5591
Email: treeclown@gmail.com
Website: kencunninghamstudio.com
Address: 216 sixth ave, New Westminster,
BC, Canada, V3L 1T6