* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
It’s been said that Kevin Gray had already sketched before he could walk. While that may not be completely true, his urge to fill empty surfaces was evident early on. His first ‘professional’ engagement was as a contract graffiti artist.
Through his studies at the Weissensee School of Art Berlin, Gray reinforced existing tendencies, his partiality for symbolism or the cautious abstract. During his studies he allowed himself to experiment further, making contact with other artistic worlds, including photorealism in his “Berlin by Night” paintings. His study time in India also left traces of the lives of simple people there and the natural colors of the Tropics.
Symbols such as bridges and stairs are on hand as connections and possibilities to move to islands as places of quietness and seclusion. The surrounding landscape has a raw character that allows the buildings and places to appear fragile.
In his choice of media Gray combines classic oil painting with the aerosol colors of graffiti. Technically, this is truly a conflict in paint, but despite that, exciting. Through this link, broken and fragile structures come into existence, that give every opportunity for further development: completion or destruction.