Press Release:
Michael Kennaugh
Driving to Eden
May 19 – June 23, 2018
Reception for the Artist Saturday, May 19, 5-7 pm
Artist Talk 5 pm
Moody Gallery is pleased to present Driving to Eden, an exhibition of new work by Michael Kennaugh. The exhibition features new oil paintings on canvas as well as a selection of works on paper also painted in oil.
Kennaugh finds that the drawings in his sketchbook are always the freshest things he makes. These sketches serve as the general structure for the paintings. In his current body of work, he works directly onto the canvas, forgoing preliminary studies.
Kennaugh writes, “I wanted to return to drawing and use the painted line to direct, build and renegotiate forms and space. It feels like I'm turning my paintings inside out. Eliminating any preconceived notions from the sketchbook, I am aiming to make these compositions more intuitive and as always, expose the changes that happen during the creative process.”
These new works also emerge out of Kennaugh’s recent return to Wyoming to reconnect with family and a trip to Eden, Texas - the center of our Lone Star state.
Michael Kennaugh was born in Casper, Wyoming in 1964 and currently lives and works in Houston, Texas. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Lamar University, Beaumont in 1986 and his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of North Texas, Denton in 1990. His work is included in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, the Houston Airport System, City of Houston, Lamar University, Beaumont, as well as corporate collections both national and international.
Michael Kennaugh’s work is currently on view at the Mobile Museum of Art through August 5 in the exhibition Houston Artists: Gestural and Geometric Abstraction, curated by Jim Edwards. An extensive exhibition of his work, Locus in Quo, was organized by the Art Museum of Southeast Texas in 2015 and traveled to the Galveston Arts Center. Kennaugh is also included in the book Texas Abstract: Modern/Contemporary by Jim Edwards and Michael Paglia, published in 2014.
The exhibition Driving to Eden will be on view at Moody Gallery May 19 through June 23, 2018. A reception for the artist will be held Saturday, May 19 from 5-7 pm with an Artist Talk at 5 pm.