Newport Art Museum

A Curator’s Perspective

“A train of thought” is how the artist describes the evolution of his recent series using artifacts of the information age.  Floppy disks and videotape have lent themselves visually and conceptually to sculptures with titles like Video Chignon and Your Eyes.  His elegant abstract pencil drawings on black gouache are actually greatly enlarged representations of the little black tabs on floppy disks.  In Speiser’s art dimensions are changed, forms are reconfigured, patterns emerge and converge – what you see is not necessarily what you get, or vice versa.  Speiser’s thought processes extend to the titles of his art, which, he asserts, have to fit the “personalities” of the works.  “Untitled” or “Vessel form #14” aren’t in the Speiser vocabulary; imagination, interplay and a little bit of irony are.

The Newport Art Museum is pleased to host this retrospective exhibition “Kenn Speiser Works.”  However, we have every assurance that the artist will continue to “surprise and engage” us with his art for many years to come.

Nancy Whipple Grinnell, Curator
Newport Art Museum