KEVIN MICHAEL O’CONNELL
Denver, Colorado
Manzanita, Oregon
BIOGRAPHY
Kevin O’Connell was born in Hammond, Indiana amongst slowly decaying steel mills and oil refineries. The postindustrial landscape fostered an early fascination with large machines, energy, and temporality.During cross-country road trips in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, Kevin discovered the vastness and isolation of the West. After moving to Denver in 1981, the horizon and the theme of water (as well as the lack thereof) became a significant factor in his work. Recent series of still photographs and videos, “Inundation” (2016) and “Fog Journal” (2021), present a visual departure from the images of the arid landscapes of Colorado.
However, several recent series, “Inundation” (2016) and “Fog Journal” (2021) and Fallen Trees (2022), have expanded his visage of beyond the arid landscapes of Colorado, and were made in coastal areas of the Pacific Northwest of the US. These images have been largely informed by Japanese aesthetic concepts of “Mono No Aware” (impermanence) and “Yugen” (dark mystery).
Kevin’s work is held in numerous public and private collections and he has exhibited extensively, including numerous solo exhibits such as “Everything Comes Broken” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (2009) and Santa Fe University of Art and Design (2014), “Fog Journal“ (2021), “Inundation” (2016), and “Memories of Water” (2014) at the Robischon Gallery in Denver. He has been interviewed on Colorado Public Radio and has received two fellowship grants at the Ucross Foundation.
SELECTED
COLLECTIONS
Center for Creative Photography, Tucson
Museum of Fine Arts Houston
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Denver Art Museum
Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris
Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro
Brigham Young University Museum of Art
Ross Art Museum, Wesleyan University
Qwest Communications, Inc.
Kaiser Permanente, Inc.
Fidelity Investments, Inc.
Captiva Resources, Inc.
Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce
Born Hotel, Denver
Crawford Hotel, Denver
PUBLIC ART PUBLIC ART
Denver Convention Center Hotel - Four short 35mm films (2005).
REPRESENTATION
Robischon Gallery, Denver, Co.
Photo Eye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
MEDIA
Colorado Public Radio Interview, 8/09
https://www.cpr.org/show-segment/photographer-focuses-on-the-eastern-plains/
PUBLICATIONS
Fallen Trees, artist’s book, edition of 100 (2022)
Inundation, artist’s book, edition of 50 (2017)
High Desert Journal, No. 13, (Spring 2011)
Shooting the West, Contemporary Colorado Photographers (2009)
Landscapes of Colorado (2007)
21st, The Journal of Contemporary Photography (Volume V)
La Fotografia No. 96, April 2003 (Spain)
Orion, January/February 2003
LensWork No. 41, June/July 2002
PERSONAL
Born Hammond, Indiana.
Purdue University, B.S. Hydraulic Engineering
University of Denver, J.D.
2010 & 2007 Fellowships, Ucross Foundation
Nominee: 2008 Aperture West Book Award
Nominee: 2009 Baum Award
2012-2013 Board of Directors: Colorado Photographic Arts Center
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
1/21 Robischon Gallery, Denver
Fog Journal
4/19 Robischon Gallery, Denver
Petrichor
7/18 photoeye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Light + Metal
5/17 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM
Landscapes of Life and Death
6/16 Center for Creative Photography, Tucson
New Acquisitions
6/16 Robischon Gallery, Denver
Inundation
9/14 Robischon Gallery, Denver
Memories of Water
5/14 Fort Collins Museum of Art
Kevin O’Connell, The New West
2/14 Photoeye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Conventional Entropy
2/14 Santa Fe University of Art and Design, NM
Everything Comes Broken
4/13 Byers-Evans House Museum, Denver
The Denver Salon: Then and Now
9/11 Robischon Gallery, Denver
Kevin O’Connell: Moments of Inertia
7/11 Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro
Joaquim Paiva Collection
10/10 Nicolaysen Art Museum, Casper, WY
Ucross: Twenty-Seven Years of Visual Art Residencies
4/10 Denver Art Museum
Exposure
7/09 Museum of Contemporary Art Denver
Kevin O’Connell: Everything Comes Broken
6/09 Robischon Gallery, Denver
Kevin O’Connell: Conventional Entropy
1/09 Arvada Center for the Arts, Arvada, CO
Shooting the West, Colorado Photographers
12/07 Platform Gallery, Seattle
Adam Satushek and Kevin O’Connell: In Between Days
9/07 Colorado History Museum, Denver
Contested Lands: Photographs Around the Picket Wire
8/07 Regis University, Denver
Kevin O’Connell and Richard VanPelt
11/06 Aspen Art Museum
Colorado Biennial
6/06 Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver
Decades of Influence
2/06 Robischon Gallery, Denver
Kevin O’Connell
2/05 Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver, B.C.
Kevin O’Connell: Sublime
1/05 Museum of Fine Arts Houston
Out of the Ordinary
5/04 Denver Art Museum
scene Colorado/sin Colorado
7/02 Gallery Sink, Denver
Platinum, A Rare Passion
10/02 Los Angeles County Museum of Art
New Acquisitions
12/01 Denver Art Museum
Photography from the Denver Salon
12/01 Brigham Young University Museum of Art, Provo
Exploring the Western Landscape
9/00 Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY
Grace
3/00 Houston Fotofest
Floral Visions