Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. | |
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![]() The artist with inky hands at a "Pull-a-Print" event in Wisconsin, 2010. | |
Born | Lafayette, Louisiana |
Education | MFA, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1997 BS Mathematics, Grambling State University, Louisiana, 1972 [1] |
Occupation | printer |
Children | 2 |
Relatives | Amos III (son), Adric (son) |
Website |
kennedyprints |
Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. (born 1948) is an American printer, book artist and papermaker best known for social and political commentary, particularly in printed posters. [2] One critic noted that Kennedy is "...unafraid of asking uncomfortable questions about race and artistic pretension." [3]
From an early age, Kennedy was interested in letters and books and studied calligraphy for several years. [4] At the age of 40, Kennedy visited Colonial Williamsburg, a Virginia living history museum, and was mesmerized by an 18th-century print shop and book bindery demonstration. The incident so influenced that he studied printing at a community-based letterpress shop in Chicago [5] and, within a year quit his AT&T systems analyst job, which he had held for nearly two decades, to continue printmaking studies. [6]
Kennedy articulated his fascination with letterpress printing in one interview: "... I believe it was the capability of making multiples. Multiples of text are important to me. They allow for distribution." [6]
He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studied under legendary book designer Walter Hamady, and earned an MFA in 1997. He later taught graphic design at the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts at Indiana University. [7] [8] His letterpress poster shop, Kennedy Prints, is located in Detroit, Michigan. [9]
Kennedy creates prints, posters and postcards from handset wood and metal type, oil-based inks, and eco-friendly and affordable chipboard. Many of the posters are inspired by proverbs, sayings, and quotes Kennedy locates or potential clients provide. [8]
Using hand presses, he "produces large editions of wildly colourful, typographically-driven posters on inexpensive chipboard stock, posters which are often so riotously layered with vibrant colours of ink as to retain a wet iridescence and tackiness years after they were printed. His working method often involves overprinting multiple layers of text ...resulting in no two prints being truly identical." [10]
Kennedy has been hosted as an artist-in-residence at a number of institutions, including the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, [11] Virginia Center for the Book at the University of Virginia, [12] BookLab at the University of Maryland, [13] and the Wells College Book Arts Center, [14] among many others.
His work has been exhibited at a range of museums, galleries, and libraries, including the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, [15] the Museum of Modern Art Library, [16] the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, [17] and the Indiana University Bloomington Fine Arts Library. [18] In addition, his work is held in the permanent collections of the Poster House, [19] the New York Center for Book Arts, [20] and the Letterform Archive. [21]
In 2015, Kennedy was honored as a United States Artists Glasgow Fellow in Crafts and received a $50,000 unrestricted prize. [22] He was named the Individual Laureate by the American Printing History Association in 2021, [23] and the Outstanding Printmaker Awardee from the Mid Atlantic Print Council in 2022. [24]
Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. | |
---|---|
![]() The artist with inky hands at a "Pull-a-Print" event in Wisconsin, 2010. | |
Born | Lafayette, Louisiana |
Education | MFA, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1997 BS Mathematics, Grambling State University, Louisiana, 1972 [1] |
Occupation | printer |
Children | 2 |
Relatives | Amos III (son), Adric (son) |
Website |
kennedyprints |
Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. (born 1948) is an American printer, book artist and papermaker best known for social and political commentary, particularly in printed posters. [2] One critic noted that Kennedy is "...unafraid of asking uncomfortable questions about race and artistic pretension." [3]
From an early age, Kennedy was interested in letters and books and studied calligraphy for several years. [4] At the age of 40, Kennedy visited Colonial Williamsburg, a Virginia living history museum, and was mesmerized by an 18th-century print shop and book bindery demonstration. The incident so influenced that he studied printing at a community-based letterpress shop in Chicago [5] and, within a year quit his AT&T systems analyst job, which he had held for nearly two decades, to continue printmaking studies. [6]
Kennedy articulated his fascination with letterpress printing in one interview: "... I believe it was the capability of making multiples. Multiples of text are important to me. They allow for distribution." [6]
He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studied under legendary book designer Walter Hamady, and earned an MFA in 1997. He later taught graphic design at the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts at Indiana University. [7] [8] His letterpress poster shop, Kennedy Prints, is located in Detroit, Michigan. [9]
Kennedy creates prints, posters and postcards from handset wood and metal type, oil-based inks, and eco-friendly and affordable chipboard. Many of the posters are inspired by proverbs, sayings, and quotes Kennedy locates or potential clients provide. [8]
Using hand presses, he "produces large editions of wildly colourful, typographically-driven posters on inexpensive chipboard stock, posters which are often so riotously layered with vibrant colours of ink as to retain a wet iridescence and tackiness years after they were printed. His working method often involves overprinting multiple layers of text ...resulting in no two prints being truly identical." [10]
Kennedy has been hosted as an artist-in-residence at a number of institutions, including the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, [11] Virginia Center for the Book at the University of Virginia, [12] BookLab at the University of Maryland, [13] and the Wells College Book Arts Center, [14] among many others.
His work has been exhibited at a range of museums, galleries, and libraries, including the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, [15] the Museum of Modern Art Library, [16] the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, [17] and the Indiana University Bloomington Fine Arts Library. [18] In addition, his work is held in the permanent collections of the Poster House, [19] the New York Center for Book Arts, [20] and the Letterform Archive. [21]
In 2015, Kennedy was honored as a United States Artists Glasgow Fellow in Crafts and received a $50,000 unrestricted prize. [22] He was named the Individual Laureate by the American Printing History Association in 2021, [23] and the Outstanding Printmaker Awardee from the Mid Atlantic Print Council in 2022. [24]