Kim MacConnel | Kudos

In the 1980s, Kim MacConnel began cutting and sewing together pieces of fabric and bedsheets which he painted on directly with graphic motifs relative to specific locations around the world. 

Kim MacConnel (b. Oklahoma City, OK) is a key figure that pioneered the Pattern and Decoration movement of the 1970s, a direct response to hard-edged and industrial minimalism which dominated the time. Referencing non-Western designs adopted by Western artists like Picasso and Matisse, MacConnel’s work is defined by exploring abstraction through richly defined colors, shapes, and graphic motifs.  Despite painting with design elements and sometimes directly on furniture, there is meaning below the surface based in the materials he uses, and the meeting place he creates through cross-cultural interactions.

MacConnel received both his BFA and MFA at the University of California San Diego and was a painting professor there until his retirement in 2009. His work has been exhibited in The Whitney Biennials of 1975, 1977, 1979,1980, and 1985; The Venice Biennale, The Museum of Modern Art, inSite, and The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, among others. In 2013 he was commissioned through the U.S. General Services Administration’s Art in Architecture Program to create two works for the San Diego Federal Courthouse Building, and has created several public-facing murals and private commercial projects, including for Murals of La Jolla and The Center for the Arts, Escondido. 

MacConnel’s artwork is held in such collections as the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; the Albright-Knox, Buffalo, NY; MOCA, Los Angeles, CA;  SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA;  the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; among countless others around the world. The artist lives and works in Encinitas, CA.