Kevin Appel

Kevin Appel’s paintings and sculptures freely mix abstraction and representation to confound viewer expectations. At times, Appel includes portions of photographic imagery in his paintings, overlaying them with both solid geometric shapes and gestural marks so as to drastically disrupt the technical image. Using elements of design and hard edge abstraction, Appel’s 2012 painting Salton Sea (half ground) is exemplary of the artist’s unique visual vocabulary. In it, Appel obliterates the top half of a photo of beach sand, replacing it with blank canvas. The remaining, visible portion, meanwhile, is painted over with a red square, a striking, unconventionally harmonious composition. 

Appel’s work has been featured in exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Kunsthallen Brandts Klædefabrik in Denmark, among many other important institutions. His work is also held in several major collections, including those of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, the Saatchi Collection, and many more. He was the 2011 recipient of the Citibank Private Bank Emerging Artist Award, granted through the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.