Kevin Labadie’s painting, installations and sculpture have been exhibited in Tokyo, Munich and New York as well as throughout the US East Coast. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Maryland State Individual Artist Award, the Painted Bride Art Center Work-in-Progress Grant, the Baltimore Mayor’s Committee on Art and Culture Artist Award and the Marcella Brenner Faculty Project Grant.
Kevin Labadie’s carefully calibrated abstract compositions upset the idea that paintings are static entities. In a standout solo exhibition Labadie presents a series of paintings that examine the circle as both focal point and moving vehicle. His paintings appear to open up holes in the wall, snap space into fixed crosshairs, turn, and roll. The paintings are often arranged in “sets.” As a lens or porthole, each painting offers entry into the space beneath its solitary surface. Once assembled into a larger constellation of elements, the form acts as a conduit passing its force through its outermost points of contact. In this way it becomes a wheel rolling against a neighboring wheel. With economical formal sophistication, Labadie shifts perception. As his paintings take a visual spin, possible narratives slip in and out hinting at worldly sources.
EASTCITYART, Editorial Team, March 28, 2017 Breaking Circles, March 31 – April 30, 2017, Kaplan Gallery, VisArts
Labadie packs his work with an eye to salvaging the elusive gems laid in the path of the daily journey. He arranges his collections to draw a perpetual sense of narrative out of the material.
LifeStyle Report, NJ Lifestyle Magazine, August 2015
Kevin Labadie’s CV is available for download (PDF 80 kb)