Kevin Patrick Kerr

My work uses expressive, stylised figures to explore intimacy and the deep inner worlds of the mind. In my paintings and installations I show how it feels to inhabit a body and navigate the rituals of life. These rituals are played out by otherworldly creatures whose anatomy bends and distorts to match the intensity of their experience. I am interested in beauty, and pleasure, but I want to explore how the conventions of what we find beautiful are often arbitrary and malleable. My creatures rely on curiosity, empathy and attention to find them beautiful, the way a spider is beautiful in its form and strange movements once you get over that they are kinda gross and creepy. I want the viewer when they're standing in front of my painting to think of a kiss with that same curiosity and wonder that they would feel watching a spider spin a web.