Kurt Ankeny

Born 1976, United States

Artist Statement (Honesty is the Best Policy)
I like lines. And I like rough scumbles of paint. I like forms that zip around a canvas with speed and ones that hang, simultaneously weighty and floating. I find myself more interested in how these disparate paint forms can describe things in our actual world rather than simply playing amongst themselves in their own little form-world. I try for ambiguity, even though my tendency is for clarity.
I hate artist statements. Most of the time, they are French-philosophical word slurry strained through an MFA cheesecloth. I find them to be mostly painful and distracting. However, I will explain as best I can what I was thinking—or hoping to achieve—with the various series that I have created so far.

Ipswich Suite
Upon moving to Ipswich, I found the inhabitants of the small town rather distant. They didn’t seem warm and welcoming, though this could have been simply my impression. As I walked daily to and from my studio, I began to see people out doing normal, mundane things, but out of context they stuck me as odd and queer subjects for paintings. So I began to make small paintings based on quick sketches of situations I witnessed, or completely from a quick-...

1999 University of Wisconsin-Madison.
2005 Washington Studio School.
2006 Corcoran College of Art and Design.
2006 Study with Natasha Mokina and Victor Pakhomkin.
2008 Apprenticeship with Rob Howard.

2014
East End Open Studio, Ipswich, Massachusetts.

2013
Cape Ann Artisans at 30, Cape Ann Art Museum, Gloucester, Massachusetts.

2012
Winter Salon, Flatfile Boston, Boston, Massachusetts.

2011
Kurt Ankeny, Alchemy Restaurant, Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Art Now: Rockport, Rockport Lodge, Rockport, Massachusetts.
White Out, Tusinski Gallery, Rockport, Massachusetts.

2010
Art in Lanesville, Lanesville Community Center, Gloucester, Massachusetts.

2009
Kurt Ankeny/Paul Goldberg, The Art Room, Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Susie Fields/Kurt Ankeny, Sawyer Free Library, Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Views of Ipswich Bay, Lone Gull Coffeehouse, Gloucester, Massachusetts
Art in Lanesville, Lanesville Community Center, Gloucester, Massachusetts.
You Are Here, Flatrocks Gallery, Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Views of Gloucester Harbor, Flatrocks Gallery, Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Icons & Art: Michelle & Barack, J. Lucas Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Small Gifts Show, Flatrocks Gallery, Gloucester, Massachusetts.

2008
Pia Juhl Nadel/Kurt Ankeny, Cove Gallery, Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Art in Lanesville, Lanesville Community Center, Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Holiday Cheers, Cove Gallery, Gloucester, Mass...