KEVIN APPEL (American, b. 1967)

“Small Interior Sketch #7”, 1996

Unique Color Fuji x print, framed.

Sheet: 8 ¾ x 12 inches

Image: 2 3/8 x 3 ½ inches

Frame: 10 x 13 ¼ inches

PROVENANCE: ex Collection of Eileen & Peter Norton, Santa Monica, California.

Kevin Appel’s paintings explore the relationship between physical space, architecture and the painted image. Using photographs as a ground on which to build his painting, he applies layers of paint that act as screens, compressing the perceived space. The act of looking through one element to another, or the blocking of one impenetrable layer by another has become a signature of his technique. Appel's paintings are prismatic collages where images and forms are pulled from one canvas and used in another, engaging in a recursive dialogue and investigation of old and new imagery.

Appel lives and works in Los Angeles. He received his BFA from Parsons School of Design in New York and his MFA from University of California, Los Angeles. He is a professor of art and Department Chair of Art in painting and graduate studies at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at University of California, Irvine. Appel’s work was recently on view in Endless House: Intersections of Art and Architecture, Museum of Modern Art, NY (2016); and his work has been included in the exhibitions Painting in Place, Los Angeles Nomadic Division, CA (2013); California Modern, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA (2005); Trespassing: Houses x Artists, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles, CA (2003); Drawing Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2002); and Painting at the Edge of the World, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (2001). Appel has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico (2003) and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1999). His work is in the permanent collections of such institutions as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, among others.