Kenny Harris (b. 1974) has been a fixture in the Los Angeles art scene since arriving in Venice Beach, CA in 2001. Raised in the San Francisco Bay area, he received his B.A. in Fine Art from Colorado College in Colorado Springs(1996). Harris recently received his MFA from Laguna College of Art + Design in Laguna, California(2017). He has also studied at the Charles Cecil Studios in Florence, Italy and the Art Students League in New York under Frank Mason. His work has been featured in solo exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York. His shows have received critical praise from Artweek, Whitehot Magazine, Angeleno Magazine and American Art Collector Magazine. Kenny teaches undergraduate and graduate level painting at Laguna College of Art + Design and was awarded the prestigious Elizabeth Greenshields Grant in 2016.

Kenny Harris has made a career out of describing his environment both at home and abroad. He has traveled around the world depicting subject matter both grand and mundane. Travel is a constant pull for this artist, and he has made bodies of work focused on Central America, South America, Italy, France, Cuba, Turkey, China, as well as the US and his backyard of Venice Beach. His oil paintings define a place and mood, changing spaces and cityscapes with a character and resonance from direct observation.

Harris borrows from both modernism and classicism to achieve a naturalistic approach, full of grace balanced with energetic, gestural mark-making. Classical motifs are cropped with a modern eye; rendered forms are contrasted with an impasto laden palette that reflects a deep appreciation of the Dutch and Italian Masters. Drawn to quiet subjects, his muted palette and sparse environs evoke a calming contemplative energy.