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Kevin Snipes, current Resident Artist and Windgate Fellow at The Clay Studio, is exploring a new body of work focused on plate forms based on the human face. When Snipes decided to move to Philadelphia, the city of his birth, for The Clay Studio Residency, building community was a major goal. By the time he arrived, pandemic safety measures have made us avoid groups of people. Unmasked faces now cause a sense of discomfort. In some ways, this show of a group of face plates and painted bodies represents his desired community, which is the exact thing that we are now all missing. On another level, the faces are masks themselves, references to African masks that inspire Snipes' work. Finally, the presence of the gaze weighs heavily on the viewer, surrounded by eyes following you around the gallery. The power of the gaze is palpable; who has the power of the gaze, the viewer or the viewed?
Kevin has participated in several artist residency programs, including the Clay Studio, in Philadelphia and Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, in New Castle, Maine and received a Taunt Fellowship from the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana 2008. Exhibiting both nationally and internationally, including a recent solo exhibition at the Society of Arts and Craft, Boston; Akar, Iowa City and Duane Reed Gallery in St. Louis. Kevin has exhibited as far away as Jingdezhen, China. Kevin combines his love of constructing unconventional pottery with an obsessive need to draw on everything that he produces, creating a uniquely dynamic body of work.
Kevin Snipes was born in Philadelphia, but grew up mostly in Cleveland, Ohio. He received a B.F.A. in ceramics and drawing from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1994. After leaving grad school at the University of Florida in 2003 Kevin has led a seemingly nomadic artistic life, constantly making no matter where he is.
Kevin has participated in several artist residency programs, including the Clay Studio, in Philadelphia and Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, in New Castle, Maine and received a Taunt Fellowship from the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana 2008. Exhibiting both nationally and internationally, including a recent solo exhibition at the Society of Arts and Craft, Boston; Akar, Iowa City and Duane Reed Gallery in St. Louis. Kevin has exhibited as far away as Jingdezhen, China. Kevin combines his love of constructing unconventional pottery with an obsessive need to draw on everything that he produces, creating a uniquely dynamic body of work.
