Kenny Harris

Kenny has been a fixture in the Los Angeles art scene since arriving in Venice Beach in
2001. He 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.
Drawn to quiet subjects, his tonal palette and spare spaces evoke a calming energy.

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. He borrows from both modernism and classicism to
achieve a naturalistic style full of grace balanced with formalism and urgency. Classical
motifs are cropped with a modern eye; rendered forms are contrasted with palette knife
scrapes and impasto. His style and palette continues to evolve, recently focusing on still
life with vibrant color.


A semester abroad in Florence was a formative time for him, studying Renaissance Art
History and classical figure drawing at the atelier of Charles Cecil. He copied drawings at
the Gabinetto in the Uffizi and drew in the churches. Later he developed his tonal palette
while studying under Frank Mason at The Art Students’ League of New York. More
recently he earned his MFA at Laguna College of Art + Design focusing on portraiture.

Kenny was an Assistant, then Associate, Professor of Painting and Drawing at Laguna
College of Art + Design where his passion for painting inspired a generation of young
figurative artists emerging in the Southern California art scene. He was awarded the
prestigious Elizabeth Greenshields Grant in 2016. In 2025 he left teaching to return to
his studio practice full time.