Vassar Info

Thursday, June 20, 2019

5:00 pm

College Center Palmer Gallery

Artist Stephen Kenney’s first solo exhibition, 'Geometries of Color: Drawings by Stephen Kenney', will be at Vassar’s Palmer Gallery this summer. The over thirty drawings in 'Geometries of Color' engage viewers with their sensitive use of color and intricate geometric patterns. Kenney, a public-school math and statistics teacher for over thirty years in New York’s Wappingers School District, began a second career as an artist after retiring from the classroom. Kenney is also a yoga practitioner and teacher. His art training is limited to a few community art classes he took in the 1970s and 80s. His outsider art status combines with a deep understanding of mathematical concepts to create a synergy as he explores math, color, yoga, geometric patterns in colored pencil on Bristol paper.

Of his work Kenney states, “the 9-point circle for various types of triangles has been a fascinating exploration, made more meaningful to me by creating them with the use of a compass, straight edge and pencil, rather than a computer. In a similar way, I have found that my yoga practice is complemented by the investigation of patterns of regular polygons which can be meditative.”

Kenney’s drawings are both meditative and full of energy. Titles like, 'Circle of Greatest Curvature for y = x^4', come as a surprise as the images are interesting, beautiful and transcendent without knowing that they are visual representations of mathematics. Once the connection between color, math, yoga and meditation is revealed, viewers will want to return again and again to view Kenney’s transformational drawings.