PRESS RELEASE
Addison's Eyes: An Exhibition of Rediscovered Work by Kent Addison (Missouri, 1937 - 2020)
Oct 11 – Nov 10, 2022
Kodner Gallery is proud to present Addison’s Eyes: An Exhibition of Rediscovered Work by Missouri Artist Kent Addison (1937 - 2020), with an opening reception on Thursday, October 13, 2022, from 5 pm - 8 pm at Kodner Gallery, 9650 Clayton Road, St. Louis, Missouri, 63124.
The exhibition will be on view through Thursday, November 10th, 2022, and all works will be available for purchase exclusively through Kodner Gallery.
Addison’s Eyes at Kodner Gallery is generously co-sponsred by Ethan M. Rush, JD, Sigma Advisors - Investment & Estate Management.
Addison’s Eyes:
Rediscovered Work by Kent Addison
(Missouri, 1937 - 2020)
Addison’s Eyes reintroduces the captivating work of beloved professor and renowned artist, Kent Addison (Missouri, 1937 - 2020), in this restrospective exhibition of his most important, paintings, drawings, and sculptures sourced directly from the artist’s home and studio.
A prolific maker, Addison was equally dedicated to his artistic career and his role as an educator. He established and founded the Art and Design Department at Maryville University, where he served as the Pillsbury Chair of Fine Art and Fine Art Program Director. Upon his retirement in 1995, the university awarded him Emeritus Professor of Art.
Addison’s Eyes traces his practice through various aesthetic periods. Though he began with sculputure, Addison shifted to painting mid-career. He attributed the somewhat abrupt change to a significant shift of consciousness. As a painter he produced meticulously detailed trompe-l’oeil watercolors depicting found objects and historical figures arranged into still-life amalgamations. From forays into minimalism to experimentations in baroque, Addison developed his signature photo-realistic style, as every entrancing compostion brings forth the past to meet the present.
Throughout his career, he cultivated an intricate visual language of symbols and figures. These recurring motifs reference both contemporary pop-culture and art history. Addison’s deftly articulated paintings depict the mundane and the sacred: Midwestern license plates, Dutch vanitas flowers, White Castle cups, playing cards, Nefertiti – even a self-portrait of the artist in the style of Vincent van Gogh.
Addison’s practice reconsiders the discarded and the forgotten. Disparate elements coexist harmoniously and perfectly within a singular plane. His sensitive and attentive renderings equalize both object and figure. The democratic treatment of each subject allows detritus to transcend into the divine, illustrating the central tenet of Addison’s artistic and philosophic practice: empathy.
Addison’s Eyes provides the unique opporunity to display the artworks within the context of their creation. Interspersed with the finished works, is the oringial source material such as license plates, vintage wrappers, and personal ephemera, acquired directly from the artist’s studio.
The artist’s significant collection and reference objects have been carefully preserved by his wife Sharon Addison, who graciously granted Kodner Gallery exclusive access to her home, her archives, and her late husband’s studio for this special presentation exhibition.
Addison’s Eyes: An Exhibition of Rediscovered Work by Missouri Artist Kent Addison (1937 - 2020) is generously co-sponsored by Ethan M. Rush, JD, Sigma Advisors.
The exhibition will be on view through Thursday, November 10th, 2022, and all works will be available for purchase exclusively through Kodner Gallery.
Please contact Kodner Gallery for more information or with purchase inquiries at
(314) 993-4477 or info@kodnergallery.com
Please contact Kodner Gallery for more information or with purchase inquiries at
(314) 993-4477 or info@kodnergallery.com
BIO
Kent Addison
July 12, 1937 - April 26, 2020
A prolific painter, sculptor, and educator, Kent Addison was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1937. After receiving his BFA in 1959 from Washington University in St. Louis, the artist, going by the name Kent Addison, traveled to Indiana where he would complete his MFA in 1960 at Notre Dame University.
Upon returning home, Addison instructed sculptural courses for University College at Washington University in St. Louis. Shortly after, he accepted a professorship at Maryville University, where founded and established the Art and Design Department. In 1973, Addison assumed the role of Pillsbury Chair of Fine Art for the university. He continued to serve at Maryville as the Department Chair and Fine Art Program Director, and upon his retirement in 1995, the university awarded him Emeritus Professor of Art.
Though Addison began as a sculptor, he shifted mid-career, producing richly detailed trompe-l'oeil watercolor paintings featuring found objects. These progressed into various series, ranging from compositions that leaned towards minimalism to hybrid still-lifes featuring portraits culled from art history. Addison cultivated an intricate visual language of symbols and figures. When viewed as a whole, the disparate subjects co-exist in harmony, illustrating the guiding tenet of Addison’s artistic practice: to affirm that any person, regardless of their status, deserves love.
Addison has been the recipient of many honors over the course of his career including Outstanding Educators of America in 1970, numerous distinctions in publications such as Who’s Who in Art, and the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, granted by the Watercolor USA Honor Society in 2015.
His work can be found in both public and private collections including: Mid-Kansas Federal Savings and Loan, Wichita, Kansas, Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, Missouri, Neville Public Museum, Green Bay, Wisconsin, The Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Green Bay, Wisconsin. Addison was commissioned to make several landmarks that can still be found around St. Louis including The Pine: St. Louis Award located in Forest Park and various sculptures on the Maryville University Campus.
He has exhibited widely across the country including solo-exhibitions in St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Wichita, and New Orleans. His work has featured in group-exhibitions, juried exhibitions, and invitational exhibitions, and he maintained membership within many organizations including the St. Louis Artists’ Guild and National Watercolor Society. Countless publications have illustrated his work and in 1984, American Artist Magazine highlighted Addison in the December issue as their featured artist, one of only 100 artists accepted into American Artist Magazine’s National Art Competition.
Addison was as devoted to his family and faith as he was to his career. He is survived by his wife, Sharon Lee Addison, children and grandchildren after his passing at the age of 82 in April of 2020.
