Ken Kohoutek was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota and grew up in Great Falls, Montana. He received a B.A. in Ceramics in 1980 from Montana State University, Bozeman and in 1983 an M.F.A. in Sculpture from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Ken taught ceramics in St. Louis, Missouri from 1983-1995. He returned to Montana with his family in 1995 and is currently a studio artist. Ken’s work has been widely exhibited and is in museums and numerous private collections around the country.
I come from a strong background in ceramics. As an undergraduate at Montana State University I worked with two very different professors, one who worked entirely with wheel thrown forms and the other influenced by California Funk and Pop ceramics. For me this was the best of two worlds. I was able to develop strong making and firing skills as well as an enlightening understanding of ceramics as an expressive medium like painting and sculpture through which I could explore a wide range of ideas. These concepts expanded in graduate school and stuck with me throughout my art career.
Since 1982 my work has been concerned with using ceramic tile and thrown vessel surfaces as a “canvas” for low-fire glazed narrative paintings. Narratives are stories we all live with. They inform how we view and understand the world, giving shape and character to real events and imagined realities. In this medium I have been able to control flat areas of brilliant color that are organized into obsessive surface pattern. My goal is for color and pattern to interact with exuberant visual energy, adding to the desired visual and emotional tension of the imagery. I enjoy combining realistically rendered, large scale machines and household objects with a bemused male subject in a chaotic spatial environment. The result is not so much a premeditated comment on contemporary life in consumer society as it is a delight in playing with contrasts of color, pattern, perspective and scale to create a vibrant, rapid-fire visual field. There are aspects of Naïve art in my work such as childlike simplicity, and bold saturated colors, but I have also been influenced by Cubism, Dada, Pop Art, Folk Art and quilt making
In 2014 I had the opportunity to do a Resident Artist Program in Jingdezhen, China. While there I worked on a series of 23” x 19” porcelain panels and commercially made porcelain plates. I was also able to have decals made of my figure drawings and to purchase a wide range of pre-made decals. With these materials and techniques available I had a great deal of fun mixing disparate Chinese and Western imagery adding new challenges and delight to my visual narratives.