Annie Kennedy

Annie Kennedy (b. 1979) was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. The youngest of six children, both of her parents are converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Annie attended Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, Rhode Island, spending a year studying in the RISD European Honors Program in Rome, Italy. She earned her BFA from RISD in 2001 with a Major in painting and an academic concentration in art history. She went on to earn a graduate degree in Fine Art and Art Education at Parson School of Design in New York City. Named as one of the “Top Five Artists on the Rise” by Salt Lake Magazine in September of 2008, Annie is also the current Curator of Education at the Salt Lake Art Center. EDUCATION 2002-2004 PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN New York, NY M.F.A. Fine Arts Earned a New York State Visual Art Teaching Certification in conjunction with MFA Studio Coursework. Awarded “2004 Graduate Student of Merit” Award 1997-2001 RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN Providence, RI B.F.A. Painting Concentration: Art History Honors Graduate SOLO EXHIBITIONS Aug 2007 “Annie Kennedy”, Solo Exhibition, Finch Lane Gallery, Salt Lake Arts Council, Salt Lake City, UT Sep 2006 “Annie Kennedy: Preserved Emblems”, Solo Exhibition, Kimball Art Center, Park City, UT Sep 2005 “Annie Kennedy: Stored Heritage”, Solo Exhibition, Central Utah Art Center, Ephraim, UT Aug 2001 “Are You Homesick?”, Solo Exhibition, Art Access Gallery, Salt Lake City, UT. SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS Oct 2008 “Five x Five: The top five Artists on the Rise”, Phillips Gallery, Salt Lake City, UT Jan 2006 “President’s Exhibition”, Museum of Utah Art and History, Salt Lake City, UT Dec 2005 “2005 Artist Grantee Showcase”, Rio Gallery, Utah Arts Council, Salt Lake City, UT Oct 2005 “2005 Faculty Exhibition”, Jewett Center, Westminster College, Salt Lake City, UT Feb 2005 “Utah Artists”, Juror: Jonathan Goodman of Sculpture Magazine, CUAC, Ephraim, UT Mar 2004 “Generations ‘04”, A.I.R. Gallery, New York, NY Feb 2004 “Things They Carried”, Aronson Gallery, New York, NY Nov 2003 “Memento”, Three-person exhibit, Grad Faculty Gallery, New School University, New York, NY Feb 2003 “A Postcard from the Volcano”, Hotel Chelsea, New York, NY Nov 2002 “Divine Nature”, Graduate Faculty Gallery, New School University, New York, NY July 2002 “Steve Case and Annie Kennedy”, two-person Exhibition, Union Station Gallery, Ogden, UT Feb 2002 “Utah Woman Artists Exhibition”, Weber State University, Ogden, UT Dec 2001 “Spirituality in Art”, Springville Museum, Springville, UT SELECTED GRANTS, AWARDS and HONORS 2008 Awarded one of the “Top Five Artists on the Rise”, Salt Lake Magazine Salt Lake City. UT 2007 “Best Mormon Artist”, Staff Award, Best of Utah 2007, City Weekly Salt Lake City. UT 2005 Individual Artist Project Grant, Utah Arts Council Salt Lake City, UT 2004 Graduate Student of Merit Award, Parsons School of Design New York, NY 2004 Dean’s Scholarship, Parsons School of Design New York, NY 2004 Artist in Residence Grant, Salt Lake Arts Council Salt Lake City, UT 1999-2000 European Honors Program, Rhode Island School of Design Rome, Italy RELATED EXPERIENCE 2007-Present Curator of Education, Salt Lake Art Center Salt Lake City, UT 2005-2007 Adjunct Professor, Westminster College Salt Lake City, UT 2005-2007 Director of Education, Kimball Art Center Park City, UT 2005-2006 Adjunct Professor, University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT BIBLIOGRAPHY 2008 Melissa Fields, “Top Five Artists on the Rise”, Salt Lake Magazine, Sept. – Oct. 2009 “Faith, family and food are among the many layers in the work of artist Annie Kennedy. Kennedy is the youngest of six children, born to parents who converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints… [Kennedy] says being Mormon defines her, and her art, in many ways.” 2007 Kate Pappas, “24Seven”, Salt Lake City Weekly, August 2, 2007, Vol. 24 No. 11 “Annie Kennedy loves to cook. She first prepares her creations with olive oil, then bakes them in the oven. However, what Kennedy pulls out of the oven is not the beginning of a meal but, rather, the beginning of her artwork. Now on display at the Finch Lane Gallery are Kennedy’s alternative media works… that use unlikely (edible) materials to explore her family upbringing.” 2007 Steven Dark, Award “Best Mormon Artist, Best of Utah 2007”, Salt Lake City Weekly, April 5, 2007, Vol. 23 No. 46 “When Annie Kennedy isn’t teaching art to school kids at the Kimball Art Center in Park City, she’s making extraordinary pieces exploring her relationship with the LDS Church. Her exhibition last October and November showcased her use of traditional Utahn imagery such as the sego lily, the beehive and the angel Moroni using various textures, fabrics and surfaces such as Veil which is salt crystals grown on felt. At times celebratory, at others ambiguous, Kennedy brings a sharp, fresh eye and vivacity to her belief system that makes Mormonism so much more accessible than any number of trips to Temple Square.” 2006 Shawn Rossiter, “Why the Web Is Weak”, 15 Bytes October Issue, www.artistsofutah/15bytes/06oct/page5 “Kennedy’s works are unique… When you see the original, you realized that the olive oil has been baked into the paper in such a way that it doesn’t seem so much a stain sitting on top of the paper (as one assumed) as it does a unified surface itself. On top of this substrata float a series of small blue ovals and the pencil marks that enclose them. Her works of torn and layered paper are particularly attractive in person, where you can see the edge and get a sense of how each fragment sits on the next. By reading the explanatory note on her site, you can know that in her installation piece, "Veil," Kennedy has encrusted felt with salt crystals, but until you see the actual encrusted salt, hanging from the felt and falling on to the floor, you are not truly experiencing the piece.” 2005 Geoff Wichert, “Not Your Mother’s Mormon Art: Annie Kennedy at the Central Utah Art Center”, 15 Bytes October Issue, www.artistsofutah/15bytes/05oct/page1 “Such claims may seem to overstate the case for these calm, soft-spoken works, with their appealing use of folk-art techniques and domestic materials. Yet nothing here looks remotely like craft. Indeed, but for the materials listed on the gallery labels, nothing here would look out of place in New York or Los Angeles. Given Kennedy’s background — a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from Parson’s — that’s hardly surprising. What is unexpected is her decision to bring her skills back to her native Utah… It’s work that accepts every category and topic one can throw at it, seamlessly incorporating nature and identity, time and eternity, the bounded and the infinite.” 2005 Adam Bateman, “Kennedy: Back to Her Roots”, 15 Bytes, www.artistsofutah.org/15bytes/05may/page1 “[All] of Kennedy’s work draws on the rich cultural heritage she shares with many Utahns and Mormons. Such exploration, especially done like hers, in a way that isn’t propaganda for or against the LDS church, goes a long way toward exploring this unique culture and its place in art history.”