biography

 

Kevan Jenson is a painter working in Venice, California. His work features smoke applied to the picture surface with a torch. The smoke laid into the paint parallels Surrealist techniques like frottage, collage and fumage and creates an imaginal field upon which, or through which the viewer can access imagery. He hand crafts his paints from a variety of media and all the works have a permanence equivalent to paintings not utilizing smoke as a medium.

Kevan attended the University of California at Berkeley initially studying math and physics before succumbing to the arts. In 1979 apprenticed with renowned Bay Area artist Harold Paris and studied printmaking with Yuzo Nakano of the Kala Institute in Berkeley. In 1980 he moved to New York and opened a small atelier above Arto Lindsay’s recording studio. In 1985 returned to Los Angeles finding work as a video engineer and associate director in the film industry and has worked with Wim Wenders, David Lynch, and Joe Pytka among many others.