Goodnight Kenny: Bed As Biography, an exhibit by local artist Ken Phillips November 5, 2010

Goodnight Kenny: Bed As Biography
The City of Lakewood welcomes Goodnight Kenny: Bed As Biography, an exhibit by local artist Ken Phillips, to Lakewood Heritage Center’s Radius Gallery, 801 S. Yarrow St. (Wadsworth Boulevard and West Ohio Avenue) from October 22 through December 30. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays. There will be a free artist reception and talk 6-8 p.m. on November 5 in the Radius Gallery. For additional information, call 303-987-7850 or visit www.Lakewood.org/HCA . Plenty of free parking is available.
A third of our lives is spent sleeping in them. We are born in them. We dream in them. We love, languish, and die in them. They are the place of refuge, restoration, renewal, and escape. Our beds are often the most intimate item of furniture that we have, our very own space that we decorate, dedicate, or defile.
“The eight beds in this installation are a brief overview of major themes in my life from long ago crib to the unforeseen deathbed. In creating bedspreads, headboards, pillows, ornamental hanging panels, and related metal sculptures, I am setting out to celebrate some of the primary moments and influences that have shaped me as a person and as an artist,” Phillips said. The major themes presented include childhood, dreams, myth, coming out, commitment, middle age, aging, and passing on.
“Altogether, the ‘bed-scapes’ are a kind of retrospective on what I can see from my current vantage point of being ‘post-meridian.’ They are a way of synthesizing life themes and creative expression as I turn from the phase of my life that has been forward-thinking and future-building to a phase that is more reflective and more letting go, perhaps a little more like sleeping,” he said.
Phillips received his MFA from Bowling Green State University in printmaking and ceramics and the Master of Arts in adult Christian community development from Regis University. Soon after graduate school for his MFA, he had to let go of prints and pots because of the technical realities of studio labor and the time demands of his work in the ministry. He took up work in fabric collage because of its more forgiving nature and the ability to apply it to his work in liturgy and worship. His current artwork is in the areas of fabric, watercolor, paper design, and laser cut metal.
He has shown works in Denver galleries in north Denver, Capital Hill, and LoDo. He also has presented several one-man and joint shows in the Dayton Memorial Library Gallery. He has been with Regis University for more than 24 years, serving in Campus Ministry, the Fine Arts Department, and in the Office of University Mission.
Lakewood Heritage, Culture & the Arts programs are made possible in part through funding from the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) - metro Denver's unique commitment to its nonprofit art, science and cultural institutions.