Kevin Van Aelst

Artist Kevin Van Aelst was born in Elmira, New York, raised in central Pennsylvania, and is now based in New Haven, Connecticut. He received a B.A. in psychology from Cornell University in 2002 and an M.F.A. in photography from the Hartford Art School in 2005. Kevin has taught photography courses at the Hartford Art School, Middlesex Community College, Quinnipiac University, and currently at the ACES Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, Connecticut. He is a 2008 recipient of the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism fellowship grant. His artwork has been exhibited internationally, and his photo illustrations can be seen in such publications as Time, Wired, The Atlantic, Spin, Scientific American, and on the cover of Rachel Maddow’s book, Drift.

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My artwork is an attempt to reconcile my physical surroundings with the fears, fascinations, curiosities, and daydreams occupying my mind. The photographs and constructions consist of common artifacts, materials, and scenes from everyday life, which have been rearranged and reassembled into various forms, patterns, and illustrations. The images aim to examine the distance between where my mind wanders to and the material objects that inspire those fixations. Equally important to this work are the ‘big picture’ and the ‘little things’—the mundane and relatable artifacts of our daily lives, and more mysterious notions of life and existence. This work is about creating order where we expect to find randomness, and also hints that the minutiae all around us is capable of communicating much larger ideas.

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To view more of Kevin’s work please visit his website.