Kevin Shook

This exhibition explores the concept of gun rights, gun control, mass shootings, and their implications on America’s cultural identity.  Mass shootings have not directly impacted my family.  However, sending two children to school, every day there is an uncertainty of their safety.  The work explores the psychological impact on our society through investigating gun laws and tragic mass shootings.  The iconographic imagery creates a language that questions and attempts to decipher the cultural impact of violent events on our society.  The work created does not intend to solve societal problems.  The intention is that the viewer investigates their understanding of gun violence and its societal impacts.  I see the artist’s role as a witness, one who interprets and lays bare the observed.

Kevin Shook is an Artist and Professor of Art for Birmingham-Southern College. He is the printmaking area coordinator who teaches all levels of printmaking and foundation art courses. Mr. Shook graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Printmaking and Drawing from The University of Akron in 2002. He then attended the University of Delaware, where he received his Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking in 2004. Currently serving as the Chair of the Art and Art History Department and served as the Director of the Durbin Gallery from 2011-2014. He served as Art Program Director for the Big Read Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, responsible for curating and installing the Lesley Dill exhibition Lesley Dill and Emily Dickenson: Poetry and Art.

Mr. Shook’s artwork investigates the perception of a reality filtered through media. The assembled images in a range of print media and installations invite the audience to investigate the subjects’ connections. The viewer’s participation in this visual dialog completes the work.

Mr. Shook’s work has been exhibited in regional and national exhibitions, including Space One Eleven Gallery, Delaware Art Museum, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Orange County Center of Contemporary Art, Crane Arts and Painted Bride Art Center, and Morgan Conservatory. His participation in the Monumental Ideas Miniature Books, an invitational of miniature artist’s books, traveled and exhibited in 17 states, Argentina, Spain, Japan, South Korea, and China.

Space One Eleven Involvement: Tlak/Pressure 2007; The Palimpsestuous 2009; We Dare Defend Our Rights: The Gun Show 2019