ArtistArnold Kemp

Arnold J. Kemp is a visual artist and writer with a Master of Fine Arts from Stanford University. He is also a former associate curator (1993 – 2003) at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem,  Berkeley Art Museum, and JP Morgan Chase Art Collection, among others. His solo shows include the Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, Debs & Co., New York, and Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco and PDX Contemporary, Portland Oregon. In 2000, he exhibited work in the Studio Museum in Harlem’s groundbreaking exhibition “Freestyle.” In 2007, The Portland Institute of Contemporary Art commissioned a major installation of paintings and sculpture by Kemp. His work has been seen recently in Portland, OR at 1430 Contemporary, in Los Angeles at Sister Gallery and in New York at Postmasters Gallery and at envoy contemporary art space. His work has been exhibited internationally including exhibitions at Chisenhale Gallery, London, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, Hyére Festival, Hyére, France, and at Art Caucasus National Gallery, Tbilsisi, Georgia. Kemp has received awards from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, The Joan Mitchell Foundation, and Artadia Fund for Art and Dialogue. You can view more of his work at his website and in this article on his current show at PDX Contemporary Art.