Material Matters
Abbi Kenny is a fastidious painter and a committed and exacting documenter of materiality. The Providence, Rhode-Island-based artist is interested in replicating the physicality of objects and entities surrounding us, from gentle interior scenes to imposing cuts of cars, in ways which promote and evoke play and experimentation. Kenny simultaneously absorbs and extorts the tangibility of often stagnant muses, both meticulously translating their impressions and rehashing and reshaping their contexts. Abbi Kenny draws inspiration from photographs and ideas literally out of the woodwork. It’s safe to say that Abbi Kenny’s persistence and commitment to maintaining personal vision will serve us all well in reexamining surfaces and materials of the everyday.
Part One: Who is Abbi Kenny?
Question #1: who are you?
I am Abbi Kenny, an emerging artist and painter living and working in Providence, Rhode Island. This summer, I leased my first professional art studio with my boyfriend and fellow artist Luke Whittaker at the Nicholson File Company Building in the Valley district of Providence, RI. I am a New England native, born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Lexington, MA.
For high school, I attended the progressive Cambridge School of Weston in Weston, MA. Before my senior year, I received a Royal Drawing School’s Dumfries House Estate drawing residency and grant near Cumnock, Scotland. I also participated in RISD’s European Honors Program in Rome, Italy during the fall semester of my senior year. In May 2020 amidst COVID lockdowns, I graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA and honors in painting and a concentration in the Theory and History of Art and Design. I am currently pursuing my career as a painter and hanging out with my cat Nelson.
Question #2: Who are you as an artist?
I am a curious and fastidious painter. Each new painting is an opportunity to learn more about my medium. I’m very picky when I paint. I frequently repaint single colors over and over again changing it only slightly until I am absolutely sure. Sometimes I end up coming right back to the original color. I aim to push my paint through materiality and texture to its most extreme points. My practice is an alchemist exploration–I am making my acrylic paints, airbrushing, stenciling, pouring, spraying, and more. I enjoy clashing together with different kinds of paint and mixed languages to best recreate the living experience of a space. I aim to demonstrate materiality instead of illustrating it through more photorealistic means of painting. An example of how this idea manifests in my work is if there is popcorn texture in the wall I am painting, instead of painting it as realistically as possible, I am more interested in actually using that additive in my paint. This pursuit has become a core component of my painting practice.
Question #3: In terms of your artistic journey, why are you here and where are you going?
My artistic journey begins with my mother. She attended the Art Institute of Boston for painting in the ’80s and later became a graphic designer. She always kept our house well stocked with a wide variety of art materials and other fun artmaking things when I was a child. She encouraged me in all my pursuits to make weird things like my cardboard box condominiums and string installations spanning most of the house. Since then, I have continued on a steady artistic path. I am currently looking toward my future and considering potential grad schools for an MFA in painting.
Question #4: What do you absolutely need your audience to know about you or your work?
I am the daughter of what some may call a car fanatic. My father was a self-employed WWII Willy’s Jeep restorer for nearly a decade. I spent my childhood surrounded by numerous different cars at various times including a fiberglass Porsche Spyder, a Fatboy Harley Davidson, a Ford Mustang, a Porsche Cayman, a French WWII Tank, and many, many Jeeps. My father oversaw my vehicular education, from driving to changing tires and hot-wiring cars. My relationship with cars was directly nurtured by his. But, I am less interested in the actual mechanics and more in their design, form, and history.
Question #5: What has the process of making art taught you or given you?
Making art has taught me that I am a very picky person. I like to do things correctly the first time, but in painting, you can rarely do that. If something isn’t right in a painting, it will nag me until I can get it just the way I want it. This can be both a good and a bad thing for my practice. I have also learned that I like to test things and play. My studio is littered with experiments on small masonite panels. They are literally everywhere–I keep finding them in my house too.
Question #6: What keeps you going?
Curiosity keeps me going. I take a lot of photos of things that interest me in the day. Sometimes, I see something in a photograph I have taken, and know exactly how I want to paint just one small part of it. Then I have the challenge of figuring out the rest of it.
Part Two: Interconnected
What is your artistic practice?
Currently, I am developing two separate but interconnected bodies of paintings. One series consists of extreme crops of cars, and the other is a series depicting interior scenes and still lives. In the still lives, I am reflecting on their ability to be a mode of portraiture. Despite these series being two distinctly different outcomes, through them, I am exploring ideas regarding history, portraiture, taste, and materiality.
acrylic, paper collage, and colored pencil on canvas
48 x 60 inches
2020
acrylic and colored pencil on canvas
36 x 48 inches
2020
acrylic and paper collage on canvas
30 x 30 inches
2020
acrylic, sand, and paper collage on panel
60 x 48 inches
2020
acrylic and oil pastel on canvas
48 x 48 inches
2020
| Where/ How can Vacant Museum viewers see more of your work and where can they purchase it? |
| The best place to view my completed works is my website. To see updates and works in progress, my Instagram is the place to go. I am @abbihkenny. This fall, I am included in a group show with the House of Venus pop-up in the SoWa district of Boston. For more info on the exhibition and the other artists involved, you can go to their website here https://www.houseofvenusboston.com/ |