Robert Kinsell

Robert Kinsell has been painting realism for 30 years. He was an apprentice to Philip Pearlstein in 1971. He earned his BA at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana in 1973. He earned both his MA in Painting and his MFA in Painting from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1984 and 1985. Kinsell has been working as a professor of art at the Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX for 14 years. Kinsell has worked in all the traditonal representational genres but loves still live painting the most. He has said he is “interested in the contradictions inherent in representational painting.” He enjoys taking an object and representing it as another. Examples of this are taking a group of vegetables and turning them into figurative forms, making fruit into lights on a tree, or turning a wall into a sketch book on top of which to place related, or completely unrelated, objects. He creates narratives with the objects, creating communication not just between the objects themselves, but between himself and the viewer. Kinsell’s work is full of humor and even satirical at times.

Recently, Kinsell has been able to expand his ablilty to observe his still lifes through the use of digital photography and 3D modeling software. But in the end, Kinsell believes its the artist’s work that is most important, not the tools used to get image perfect. “It is of little interest to me if something is drawn, painted, photographed or printed. It is paramount importance that the viewer finds something that resonates in the work.”

ONE AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS:

• 2008 “The Desert, Inside and Out,” McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• 2007 “Against the Wall,” Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
• 2006 “Imposed Realities,” McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• 2005 “Digital Means,” (with Leonard Stokes), Burns Atrium Gallery, Union College, Schenectady, New York
• 2004 “Past and Present,” Solo Exhibition, Longview Museum of Fine Art, Longview, Texas, July 10 – August 28
• “New Paintings,” McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• 2002 McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• 2001 “The Digital Print,” The Image Gallery, Longview, Texas, October 8—October 31
• “Reality—Virtual and Otherwise,” The Texas Christian University, Ft.Worth, Texas
• 2000 “Robert Kinsell: New Paintings,” McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• 1999 “Robert Kinsell, The Secret Life of Objects: Ten Years in Texas,” Museumof East Texas, Lufkin, Texas, October 1999—January 2000
• 1998 McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• 1996 McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• 1994 “Robert Kinsell: Still Life Paintings,” Lon Morris College, Jacksonville,Texas
• 1993 McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• 1992 “Michael Crespo and Robert Kinsell,” Bingham Kurts Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee 
• 1991 McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• 1990 Lima Art Association, (with Alison Adams), Lima, Ohio
• 1988 University of Wisconsin Center, Janesville, Wisconsin
• 1987 Rahr-West Museum, Manitowoc, Wisconsin
• 1978 Dobrick Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
• 1974 Three Form Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
• 1973 Krannert Drawing Room, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 

GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

• 2007 “Red Revisited,” McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• “SFA Faculty Exhibition,” SFA Gallery, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas
• 2006 “A Touch of Red,” McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• 2005 “Representing Representation,” Arnot Art Museum, Almira, New York
• “A Little More Red,” McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• “SFA Faculty Exhibition,” SFA Gallery, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas
• 2004 “Something Red,” McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• “The Essential X,” Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
• “SFA Faculty Exhibition,” SFA Gallery, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas
• “Coast to Coast,” Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
• “Rock, Scissors, Paper,” Williams Tower Gallery, Houston, Texas
• 2003 “Something Blue,” McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• 2002 Group Exhibition, McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• 2001 “The Box,” Hooks-Epstein Galleries, Houston, Texas
• 2000 “Forbidden,” McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• 1999 “Gallery Artists,” McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• “Memphis Biennial 1999,” (Invitation Auction), Memphis College of Art, Memphis, Tennessee
• 1998 “Still Sixteen, Still Life,” Galerie Simonne Stern, New Orleans, Louisiana
• “The Figure and the Chair,” Hooks-Epstein Galleries, Houston, Texas
• “1998 Invitational,” Longview Museum of Fine Arts, Longview, Texas
• 1997 “Flora Bella,” Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, Texas
• “Assistance League of Houston Celebrates Texas Art ‘97,” Cullen Center, Houston, Texas. Juror: David Ross, Whitney Museum of American Art
• “Classically Inspired,” Hooks-Epstein Galleries, Houston, Texas
• 1996 “Take Flight,” McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• 1995 “Holiday Opening,” Ledbetter Lusk Gallery, Laurelwood, Memphis, Tennessee
• “SFA Faculty Exhibition,” SFA Gallery, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas
• “Art Journeys,” The Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas
• “Samantha’s Garden,” Group Exhibition, McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas 
• 1994 “Painters and the Object,” McMurtrey Gallery, Houston, Texas
• “Texas Art International,” An International Juried Visual Art Competition, Fox Fine Arts Center, University of El Paso, El Paso, Texas. Juror: Dr. Donald B. Kuspit
• “Miniatures,” Hooks Epstein Gallery, Houston, Texas
• 1992 “Daily Bread,” C.G. Jung Center, Houston, Texas
• “Conventional Forms/Insidious Visions,” Glassell School of Art, Houston, Texas
• “35th Annual Delta Art Exhibition,” Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Arkansas. Jurors: Roy and Ann Boyd, Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
• “Red: The Artists Respond,” Bingham Kurts Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee