About
Kevin Kuenster is an American painter whose work blends narrative storytelling with surreal imagery. Influenced by
20th-century female surrealists such as Leonora Carrington, Dorothea Tanning, and Remedios Varo, as well as the precision of Northern Renaissance painting. His art examines human folly, vulnerability, and estrangement from the natural world.
Kevin’s paintings often depict human and animal presences that act as symbols of absurdity, innocence, and the fragile link between our lives and those of animals, both real and imagined.
Kevin’s work has been exhibited internationally, including, “Who Do We Think We Are” a solo retrospective at the DAMA Gallery in Los Angeles, CA 2025, “Echoes of Lynch” Opale Art, Paris, France 2025, "Altered Dreams" at The Royal Society of American Artists, Brooklyn, NY 2022, "Voyage" The ARC Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2022, and at The Imagoars Art Gallery, Venice Italy 2017.
In 2021 he received the Mediterranean Contemporary Art Prize, Third Prize for Painting, in Potenza, Italy, and was awarded first prize, "Fun House: Art of the Surreal, Fantastic and Bizarre" The Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY.
Kevin has also been featured in international art publications, with interviews and reviews appearing in Barbagelata Contemporary Art Foundation, Barcelona, Spain 2025, Al-Tiba9 Contemporary Art Magazine interview, fall issue 2025, The Visual Arts Journal, interview, Issue 32, 2025, and, Art Seen Magazine, profile and interview, winter issue 2025.
EXHIBITIONS
2014 Emerging Artists 2014, The Limner Gallery Hudson, NY
2014 "Less is More: Small Works in a Great Space", The Mitchell Gallery Annapolis, MD
2015 4th Annual National Show, The East End Arts Gallery Riverhead, NY
2015 5th Annual Clay National Exhibition, Workhouse Arts Center gallery Lorton, VA
2016 Small Works 2015, The Limner Gallery Hudson, NY
2017 Malamegi Lab.7, Imagoars Art Gallery, Venice, Italy
2017 "Small Works-Big Talent', Las Laguna Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
2018 "The Bitters 2: We're Fucked", Whitdel Arts, Detroit, MI
2018 Superstition Review, literary magazine, spring issue
2018 "The Age of Anxiety", Arts Guild of Sonoma, Sonoma, CA
2018 "A Generous Kingdom", Verum Ultimum Art Gallery, Portland, OR
2019 Small Works, The Limner Gallery Hudson, NY
2020 "XPOSED - NAKED AND NOT AFRAID" Knox Contemporary Gallery of Art, Calgary, Canada
2021 "Fun House: Art of the Surreal, Fantastic and Bizarre", The Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie, NY
2021 Mediterranean Contemporary Art Prize, THIRD PRIZE for painting, Potenza, Italy
2021 "Petit: Smaller Sized Art", Emerge Gallery, Saugerties, NY
2021 "Art in the Time of Corona", DAB Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2022 Prisma Art Prize FINALIST, Rome, Italy
2022 "Strange Paradise: A Window into Surrealism", Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center, Solomons, MD
2022 "Altered Dreams", Royal Society of American Artists, Brooklyn, NY
2022 "Voyage", ARC Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2023 "Freedom Aphrodisiac", The Musonium Gallery, Tampa, FL
2024 "60 Years & 60 Works" Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY
2024 "Initiation: Exodus", Musonium Gallery, Palm Springs, CA
2025 "Curious Formalities", DAMA Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2025 Barbagelata Contemporary Art Foundation, Art Magazine Spring Issue, Barcelona, Spain
2025 Art in the Berkshires, Juried Art Show, Lenox, MA
2025 Visual Arts Journal, Interview, Issue 32 July 25th. United States
2025 Al-Tiba9 Contemporary Art Magazine, Issue 19, Fall 2025
2025 "Echoes of Lynch", Opale Art, exhibition and catalogue, Paris, France
2025 Drawn from Life exhibition "Identity", Upstream Gallery, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY
2025 Art Seen Magazine, profile and interview, winter issue 2025
2026 "Apple Face", Mriya Gallery, Tribeca, NYC
SOLO SHOW
2025-26 "Who Do We Think We Are?" 27 paintings at the DAMA Gallery, Los Angeles, CA