About Ken's Art
“My shaped abstract painting supports a core premise that a painting can be a dynamic, powerful visual statement if it is involved in the actual space of the viewer. I fabricate structures in a sculptural high-relief that break edges and surfaces with a variety of applied materials to increase visual meaning. In my original oil painting, I would like to invite a change in awareness about what a painting can be, through a transformation in a painting appearance that absorbs and captivates the viewer’s interest in new ways. In this work practice, I use constructed forms with charged expressive surface color to invoke a feeling of transcendence. In this painting form, I forge a compelling visual involvement for the viewer that invokes my expressionistic emotional commitment.
The personal vision in my imagery often involves a special type of landscape, described as a place, outside of landscape, that resonates with a distinctive inner spiritual power. In my current work, I construct round painting forms, ‘’tondos’’, in a variety of media with applied surface materials on a wall space to suggest unusual visual intention and technical invention that challenges the eye in the dynamic energy of a circle form.
These sculptural paintings announce themselves as “painting as object”, with a bold dramatic effect that suggests a special vibrancy in a visually provocative way that presents them dramatically on a wall. In my small scale paintings, I pack emerging energy, to reveal an unfolding sense of monumentality.
In my painting constructions, I make free use of a variety of applied diverse materials, such as wire, rope, canvas and modeling paste, along with oil paint on paint surface to provoke imaginative ideas . I am aware of providing evidence of the presence of my painting hand as I sometimes push my imagery to an edge between figuration and abstraction to suggest a sense of the immediate.
I employ a variety of materials and techniques from oil on canvas to drawing and paint media with water on paper, to offer possibilities for intense creative exploration. In my work on paper, I use a mono print process of my own invention that combines a unique printing process with painting to suggest in color fluidity, movement, and drama. Sometimes these print paintings are on mounted canvas to indicate a feeling of substance and solidity. This work on paper is often prompted by dramatic opera themes forcefully carried out in abstraction. Using antique Baedeker travel maps as an initial image I apply computer graphic tools and color inks with archival inkjet printing to produce unique print painting in bold color that suggests a buried travel memory.
Sources for my work include classical Italian art, historical references, nature, and retrieved ancient objects from antiquity in glass and metal. Surfaces of objects and forms disintegrating in a diverse natural environment provide a rich source for inspiration that suggest an ever-changing natural world sometimes under great stress. Investigation in my work into other cultures and times constantly triggers ideas for techniques and applications in form and content. This free form constructed painting allows me to explore and reach out to constant new possibilities in a visual world. I want my work to project a special sense of energetic exploration that engages the cutting edge of contemporary painting , where I can ultimately let the internal mystery in the work rest.
Those interested in an unusual manipulation of form, content, and color, in painting will find my work a compelling place for
unusual contemplation and dramatic aesthetic enjoyment.”
- Ken
About Ken
Kenneth Schnall has a BA in Fine Arts education and received a graduate degree in the humanities with a major in art history at Kean University in Union New Jersey, while teaching artistically and intellectually gifted students at a New Jersey secondary school. In 1986 he participated in a School of Visual Arts, summer painting MFA program in Urbino, Italy where he had contact with leading members of the Italian Transvanguardia art movement. In 1995, Ken received Geraldine R Dodge Fellowship fellowship for study in Venice, Italy, where he painted in the Palazzo Fortuny.
An NEA grant in 1995 at the Center For Innovative Printmaking, at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, allowed him to work with a master printer/paper maker to produce a limited edition of mono print wall books, some of which were distributed to state art collections. In 1998 Ken received a Geraldine R. Dodge painting fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center, in Johnson, Vermont. He also received another Dodge fellowship for painting in1999 at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts residency at Sweet Brier, Virginia.
Ken has been exhibiting his artwork since 1962 with a first New York City solo exhibition in 1972. He has exhibited painting work at the Newark Museum, Montclair Museum, and the state museum in Trenton, New Jersey. His hand made books have been exhibited at the Center for Book Arts and Harpers Collins Publishing Company in New York City. His solo exhibition in 2002 at the Synagogue Visual Arts Gallery, in New York City included wall mounted, Arcadian Views-book paintings. In 2005 a major exhibition of his paintings and artists books was mounted at Ball State University, in Muncie Indiana.
His last major exhibition in 2006 of wall book paintings was at the Pierro Art Gallery in South Orange, Maplewood, New Jersey. In 2008 his constructed works on paper work was exhibited at the Morris Art Museum in Morristown New Jersey. Recent work was exhibited at The New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, The Center for Book Arts in New York City, and in 2012 at the Legacy exhibition at the New Jersey Print Council, North Bridge Station, New Jersey as well as a featured artist at the Noyes Museum in Atlantic city in 2017.
Ken has exhibited in national and international venues and his work is in private and corporate collections. Reviews of his work appeared in Art in America, The New York Times, and The Newark Star Ledger. Ken maintains a studio in Milford, New Jersey.Kenneth Schnall has a BA in Fine Arts education and received a graduate degree in the humanities with a major in art history at Kean University in Union New Jersey, while teaching artistically and intellectually gifted students at a New Jersey secondary school. In 1986 he participated in a School of Visual Arts, summer painting MFA program in Urbino, Italy where he had contact with leading members of the Italian Transvanguardia art movement. In 1995, Ken received Geraldine R Dodge Fellowship fellowship for study in Venice, Italy, where he painted in the Palazzo Fortuny.
An NEA grant in 1995 at the Center For Innovative Printmaking, at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, allowed him to work with a master printer/paper maker to produce a limited edition of mono print wall books, some of which were distributed to state art collections. In 1998 Ken received a Geraldine R. Dodge painting fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center, in Johnson, Vermont. He also received another Dodge fellowship for painting in 1999 at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts residency at Sweet Brier, Virginia.
Ken has been exhibiting his artwork since 1962 with a first New York City solo exhibition in 1972. He has exhibited painting work at the Newark Museum, Montclair Museum, and the state museum in Trenton, New Jersey. His hand made books have been exhibited at the Center for Book Arts and Harpers Collins Publishing Company in New York City. His solo exhibition in 2002 at the Synagogue Visual Arts Gallery, in New York City included wall mounted, Arcadian Views-book paintings. In 2005 a major exhibition of his paintings and artists books was mounted at Ball State University, in Muncie Indiana.
His last major exhibition in 2006 of wall book paintings was at the Pierro Art Gallery in South Orange, Maplewood, New Jersey. In 2008 his constructed works on paper work was exhibited at the Morris Art Museum in Morristown New Jersey. Recent work was exhibited at The New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, The Center for Book Arts in New York City, and in 2012 at the Legacy exhibition at the New Jersey Print Council, North Bridge Station, New Jersey as well as a featured artist at the Noyes Museum in Atlantic city in 2017.
Ken has exhibited in national and international venues and his work is in private and corporate collections. Reviews of his work appeared in Art in America, The New York Times, and The Newark Star Ledger. Ken maintains a studio in Milford, New Jersey.