Kevin Paulsen

Drawing on a range of influences from the frescoes of Giotto and Synthetic Cubism to graffiti and stencil art, Kevin Paulsen paints carefully composed but deceptively naïve works that recall the innocence and simplicity of Early American folk murals. Paulsen’s work blends elements of history and myth, depicting an idealized world of fantastic buildings and Edenic forests while subtly addressing the uneasy relationship between industrialization and the natural world. Using pale, muted tones and carefully designed compositions, he conjures a world of slender trees, rounded hillocks, and simply rendered iconic sailing ships in a primitive style which vividly evokes a bygone era. Working on a surface of polystyrene covered with pigmented plaster, the artist creates images that resemble frescoes, with deliberate cracks and blemishes adding to their aged quality and further evoking a sense of passing time. Paulsen populates his collages with spray painted stencilled figures and has created his own range of digital and screen-printed fabrics and wallpapers.