I remember when I first saw Kevin Finklea’s work “in the flesh”. There is a particular warmth that something beautifully made by hand gives off that is simply impossible to convey in a photo. Some contemporary painting and sculpture is made so it will look good online and digested quickly. Kevin’s work urges the contemporary viewer to slow down. When it’s common for artists to drape meaning onto their work and retrofit memories to match a current piece, Kevin’s approach is more immediate and straight forward. “Glue it, screw it and paint it” has been his guiding principle since 2007. There is not a lot of self-referential gunk to gum up the works, so the process is totally open to the exploration of color, surface, shape and balance. Kevin’s work always looks just right to me, even when the colors and forms are unexpected. The piece in the picture is from 2011.


Kevin Finklea, 2011