Iridian Gallery, Richmond Virgina. September 25 - November 9th, 2020.
My latest solo exhibition BOYFRIEND HOUSE is a creative examination my queer domesticity and chosen family in the year of our lockdown 2020. Featuring a few cameo artworks by my brothers-in-arts @joshleeworld @gioblackpeterx @slavamogutin & @michaelbirch
INSTALLATION VIEWS
The site specific sculpture in the middle of the space I created the day before the opening uses local found materials including shopping carts, a baseball bat, boxing gloves and shopping bags as well as more personal items like my american flag thong, drawings of libidinous bodies on fabric, text pieces in gray felt (“NEATLY & PETITELY” and “FORCEFULLY” ) and a vintage American flag I shredded to a tattered skeleton. Perhaps best of all, I incorporated a series of gorgeous small textile sculptures by artist and friend @joshleeworld including a highly embellished open mouth with a tongue featuring spiked silver taste buds, a glittering eye with shards and swirls of light shooting out, rendered in fabric and a mask with antlers that Josh created 15 years ago when we first met using my old velour track suit. All together, this pop-up sculpture evokes a frentic sense of american materialism, capitalism and hedonism. It’s both an ode and a curse to the sensual and senseless pleasures of the uniquely trashy American spirit of “I shop, therefore I am”
Brian Kenny
The Duanes (2020)
acrylic, ink, and polyester patchwork banner
52 x 48 inches
The second law of thermodynamics is never far from my mind. It states that the entropy (or ‘disorder’) of any isolated system always increases. That means that virtually everything; the stars, our planet, our bodies, our relationships, our houses, our phones, even collective groups like our nation, have to actively withstand or push back against the naturally eroding force of entropy to stay alive, to stay together, to stay relevant, to continue working and prolong collapse. Our bodies miraculously do this for decades mostly without our conscious awareness to keep us in that golden zone of order and stasis we recognize as ‘being alive’. And we spend most of our conscious lifetimes working to understand, maintain and build upon the myriad forms of order, structure and function in this ultimately futile but nonetheless deeply beautiful and meaningful cosmic balancing act. Entropy will eventually destroy literally everything, but it’s also whats make you, and I, and the birds, and trees and sandcastles and stories so very precious.
This banner, doomed to eventually become dust, is an ephemeral attempt to visually embrace the idea of entropy in my relationship with nature. I even took the first step and added a chaotic visual chopping and scrambling of a small garden of house plants. Yet even in overall disarray, I hope that the viewer can still sense an emerging narrative or a glimmer of beauty and balance that shines through because it’s that glimmer, that sense of wonder or pause, where a finite universe is revealed as infinite.
Brian Kenny
“The Garden of Entropy” (2020)
acylic, ink, vinyl and polyester patchwork on canvas
52.5 x 48 inches
Brian Kenny
With Every Being of My Fibers (Fiddle Leaf Fig) 2020
acrylic, ink, vinyl, polyester patchwork banner
82.5 x 36 inches
Brian Kenny
RECKLESS PARADISE PIE (2020)
acrylic, ink, cotton, vinyl, nylon, polyester, lycra and metal patchwork banner 82.5 x 73 inches
Made entirely from upcycled materials, most of it personal; including red fabric from the sofa my ex @slavamogutin and I shared for 10 years, underwear from my days as a GO-GO boy, jerseys and other items from my personal wardrobe, discarded shopping bags and large format advertisements I reclaimed from the area of my old studio and even a gymnastics medal I earned in competition when I was a kid. The ‘night creatures’ in the mural are all imagined portraits of myself, my boyfriend and close friends; my wild and crazy chosen family.
Brian Kenny
”Altar Everything” (Bird of Paradise) 2020
mixed media textile banner
71.75 x 42.5 inches
Brian Kenny
Two Headed Monster (2020)
ink, acrylic, vinyl, cotton, velvet, polyester, nylon, canvas and tarpaulin patchwork banner
127 x 70 inches
Being in a long term relationship sometimes feel likes you’ve become a two-headed monster. Your lives have merged, your stories intertwined and with this inevitably comes clashes, emotional seesawing and tug-of-wars that leave you both feeling a snake eating its own tail. Yet despite all the drama, what keeps us together is constant forgiveness, constant reaffirmation of our desire to stay together, continually building on our strengths, and always striving to achieve a balance between our individual and shared paths.
This artwork, the largest in my BOYFRIEND HOUSE exhibition, is an attempt to visually express this kind of balancing act. I stitched together a wide array of fabrics from the fancy and intricate to the mundane and utilitarian to show both sides of the sword and how together, with some love and compromise, they can still achieve a kind of balance that is beautiful, unique, and special.
Brian Kenny
MR KENNY (2020)
cotton, polyester, nylon, vinyl, wool, rubber and leather patchwork banner 71.5 x 35 inches. (private collection)
I believe we are all greater than the sum of our parts. I made this banner to express this notion by stitching together hundreds of little parts, many of them very personal (like my father’s military badges, swatches of furniture i’ve lived with, antique american flags, bits of material from my fetish collections, underwear waistbands from myself and my boyfriend, etc, along with my ubiquitous use of hand gestures and teeth to create a frenetic ‘scrapestry’ that serves as a kind of visual signature.
Brian Kenny
Black Trans Lives Matter (2020)
patchwork banner sourced from sports jerseys; polyester, nylon, cotton and elastic
73 x 38 inches
BLACK TRANS LIVES MATTER
I made this banner to continue voicing my love and support for our transgender sisters and brothers of color. 2020 ALONE has seen at least 31 acts of fatal violence against this community, primarily against black and latinx transgender women. and that’s only what’s been reported.. With unprecedented levels of queer acceptance in the past few decades, where is the love and respect for this branch of our community? Do what you can to help; voice your support on social media (repeatedly), vote, donate and support Trans advocacy organizations like the Transgender Law Center, Trans Lifeline, Forge, The Marsha P Johnson Institute and Trans Women of Color Collective.