Forgotten Land: paintings by Kevin Muente

CINCINNATI, OH – Marta Hewett Gallery is pleased to announce Forgotten Land, an exhibition of oil paintings by artist Kevin Muente, on view from April 13 through June 9, 2018. The gallery will host a reception for the artist on Friday, April 13, from 7-9 p.m. In addition, there will be a short Q&A with the artist at 7 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.

Kevin Muente’s work explores the human experience through the metaphor of landscape by featuring archetypal figures within idealized (or sometimes decaying) rural surroundings. The figures’ interaction with their surroundings and subtle gestures create powerful narratives. There are unique moments of discovery as the subjects engage the viewer with an attentive gaze while others appear lost in a moment of time and place. Muente begins his paintings with thoughtful and methodical reference photographs, staged with attention to the surrounding landscape and the interaction with props supplied by Muente. Using friends and family–as well as master paintings from the past–as his muse, Muente embraces the emotions of his subjects and infuses them with themes of discovery, loss, strength, and youth.

Kevin Muente b.1971 is professor of art at Northern Kentucky University. He received his BFA in drawing and painting from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1994 and his MFA in painting from the University of Cincinnati in 1999. While working for nationally-known mural artist Timothy Haglund, he assisted in the production of murals at the Hyatt Regency in Milwaukee, the Johnson Wax Worldwide Headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin, and at several private residences. He has garnered several awards and honors including the Kentucky Arts Council’s Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship, three Cincinnati Summerfair Aid to Individual Artist Grants, and Artist Residencies at Denali National Park and Preserve, the Wrangell Mountain Center both in Alaska as well as Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Muente has exhibited his work regionally, nationally and internationally including Sag Harbor, NY, Philadelphia, PA, Boston, MA, Ashville, NC, Knoxville, TN, Jacksonville, FL and Aalborg, Denmark. This is the artists second solo exhibition at Marta Hewett Gallery.