Kevin Xiques
"This body of work began directly after I moved to New York City from Portland, ME at the end of August 2023. Each painting documents a distinct moment in time between the beginning of September and the end of March 2024, conveying the overwhelming shift from quiet, gentle-natured Maine to the rambunctious, unsettling-yet-beautiful city of New York. To capture this period of transition I painted intuitively, in search of the truth above all else. Through the accumulation of intertwined gesture, shape, density, and color, my action or inaction informed my relationship to myself in the present, recording a specific moment in time. With each painting, a self reflection occurred. These 12 works embody a seven month unfolding of happiness, grief, excitement, solitude, confusion, and optimism." - Kevin Xiques
Xiques received a BA in Philosophy with a Film and Television Studies minor from the University of Vermont. He began his painting practice in 2020 while living in Portland, ME. Since then, his work has been included in several exhibitions in Maine and at Katzman Contemporary Projects, Concord, NH, and SOIL Gallery, Seattle, WA. His first solo exhibition, This is for You, was at Dowling Walsh Gallery in 2023. He is the recipient of a David C. Driskell Fellowship and Black Seed Studio Residency at Indigo Arts Alliance, as well as a SPACE Gallery Studio Grant. In 2022, Maine Magazine selected him as one of eighteen artists to watch. He currently lives and works in Queens, NY.