Kevin Regan’s a visual poet and his art is a fusion of his life, including growing up in a family of Reagan Democrats, those fabled people who defined 1980s America.
Today, he makes poetic portraits out of black and white head shots of Ronald Reagan, a skull and himself. They’re hypnotic, psychedelic and almost mystical, like icons from some futuristic cult. Their visual rhythm makes them alluring but the removal of eyes from his repeating images makes them seem remote and hallucinatory.
The interview took place on Saturday, June 8, 2009, the second day of the Bushwick Open Studios weekend, at the now closed Pocket Utopia storefront on Flushing Avenue in Bushwick.
An installation by Kevin Regan at Pocket Utopia as part of the Bushwick Open Studios, used with permission from the artist
Left, a street piece by Kevin in Bushwick (source), Right, one of Kevin’s most trippy compositions, that’s his head on the topless women (source)
More about Kevin here:
- YouTube channel;
- Flickrstream; and
- a BushwickBk article by Mimi Luse about Kevin’s work.
Great interview! Yet another reason why I follow your art blog. I came away understanding how an artist thinks of his work especially when it is confusing to me.
Thanks Hrag!
Hey, Kevin, My parents were from NY and moved to the same place in you lived — Palm Beach Gardens — and where I grew up, and they were FDR Democrats to the end. Of course, they were considered strange. Good interview.