Kevin Van Aelst

My artwork is an attempt to reconcile my physical surroundings with the fears, fascinations, curiosities, and daydreams occupying my mind. The photographs and constructions consist of common artifacts, materials, and scenes from everyday life, which have been rearranged and reassembled into various forms, patterns, and illustrations. The images aim to examine the distance between where my mind wanters to and the material objects that inspire those fixations. Equally important to this work are the 'big picture' and the 'little things'--the mundane and relatable artifacts of our daily lives, and the more mysterious notions of life and existence. This work is about creating order where we expect to find randomness, and also hints that the minutiae all around us is capable of communicating much larger ideas.

M.F.A. Photography, Hartford Art School, 2005
B.A. Psychology, Cornell University 2002

Kevin Van Aelst is a New Haven, Connecticut based artist. Born in Elmira New York, raised in central Pennsylvania, he received a B.A. in Psychology from Cornell University in 2002 and an M.F.A. in Photography from the Hartford Art School in 2005.  He has taught photography courses at the Hartford Art School, Middlesex Community College, Quinnipiac University, and currently at Southern Connecticut State University and at the ACES Educational Center for the Arts. His artwork has been exhibited internationally, including one-person shows at the Center for Fine Art Photography, Panopticon Gallery, and many others. His photo-illustrations can be seen in such publications as Time, Wired, The Atlantic, Fast Company, Scientific American, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and on book covers such as Rachel Maddow’s, Drift.