KEVIN B. SAMPSON (1954 - )
Untitled.

Pen and blue ink with pencil on wove paper, 2023. 457x610 mm; 18x24 inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower edge.

Provenance: collection of the artist.

Newark-based sculptor, illustrator, painter, muralist, and airbrush artist Kevin Sampson is inspired by the work of his father, late civil rights leader Stephen Sampson. During his career in law enforcement, Sampson first worked as a police officer, then a detective, and lastly, as a composite sketch artist. He studied at Lincoln University, the Parsons School of Design and the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art in 1993.

His work takes a critical stance on cultural, social, and political issues, often through assemblage. His materials, objects such as cement, bones, tiles, and rope, “hold both the memory and ultimately the power of the previous owner’s life and deeds.” Transforming these discarded objects into art serves as a poetic form of memorial, what Sampson describes as “a healing mechanism for him and his community.”

Sampson is a recipient of numerous grants and residencies, including the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation residency, the Joan Mitchell Foundation grant and residency and a teaching residency at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, where he staged his exhibition, KEVIN SAMPSON: IRONBOUND. His works are held in the collections of Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outside Art, Chicago, IL, The Museum of American Folk Art, NY, The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ and the Mystic Seaport Museum in Stonington, CT, among others.

Consigned to support the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation.