Dave Kinsey’s work has been a staple in the contemporary art scene for over a decade. Combining mediums of acrylic, collage and spray paint, Kinsey composes expressive mixed media paintings on heavyweight canvas that burst with color and speak to both his and his audiences humanity. These multi-layered textured works, which vary in form and content, echo the complexities of our human existence. By juxtaposing gentle imagery like flowers with the chaos of man and wild, he speaks to our own never-ending struggle to understand our history and the pandemonium of daily life in modern culture. These thoughtful pieces engage the viewer through their decisive composition and explosive color palette, challenging them to seek deeper meaning. In Kinsey’s words, “what is not seen is what’s there to be discovered.” and continues, “I’m trying to push the viewer into a more confrontational place.”

In his new body of work, Kinsey continues his evolution into more abstract representation while still incorporating elements of the figures which gained him fame during his influential, early career, street art campaign, “Unlearn.” In combining and reducing his visual elements, Kinsey has refined his communication with the viewer to a more concise manner within each work. In this body, Kinsey flaunts his skill to say just as much with sometimes less, at times using fewer brush strokes to get to the same place; we see his iconic heads explode and break apart in bold and energetic compositions that provoke emotion and reflection.

Kinsey elaborates on the figures in his work, “They can be grotesque if that’s what you see. From my perspective of the world, it's hard to paint reality without a sense of truth, especially when it comes to portrayals of humanity. There is sadness and hope and fear. There is the constant struggle with nature.”

About Dave Kinsey

Dave Kinsey was born in Pittsburgh in 1971, attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and the Art Institute of Atlanta before moving to California in 1994 to pursue a career as a designer and fine artist. Selected exhibitions include URBIS Museum in Manchester, UK, NEXT Chicago, Joshua Liner Gallery in NY, ALICE Gallery and Art Brussels in Belgium. His work has been featured in multiple local and international print and online publications from The New York Times, LA Weekly and Washington Post to Anthem Magazine. He has also been invited to speak at institutions such as the Pasadena Art Center, UCLA, Montserrat College of Art and the Semi-Permanent conference in Sydney, Australia.

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