Cool Hunter Predictions: Kenny Pittock

Kenny Pittock is probably the coolest uncool person currently working in Australian contemporary art. His wide-ranging practice is a playful meditation on contemporary culture which manages to be, like him, both precisely on point and completely skew-whiff.

As a genuinely interdisciplinary artist, his practice often incorporates the use of clay in the construction of sculpted representations of everyday objects, but also includes painting, drawing, video, photography, writing and sometimes a combination of these things. What pulls the work together conceptually and with an undeniably unique and compelling signature is the fine balance the artist strikes between the humorous and the sentimental in his work. His blog –kennypittock.blogspot.com – is famous for finding this balance and has a loyal group of followers who are always interested in seeing what the artist is getting up to.

Unlike his emerging artist peers who are scrambling to get noticed by the commercial gallery sector, Pittock has been reluctant to pursue these opportunities. While he’d have no shortage of offers, he says he’s been too busy making work to worry about solo shows and too preoccupied with the opportunities to show in group situations in public institutions, including Artspace, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, the Perth Institute for Contemporary Art, the Monash University Museum of Art, as well as a recent residency at the National Gallery of Victoria.

As usual he has a sweet and quirky analogy for why he hasn’t been signed with a dealer just yet: “I’ve kind of been someone who’s been out playing the field, not looking for anything too serious and focusing more on finding myself, but now I’m very much getting to the point where I wouldn’t mind settling down and so I guess over the next several months or years, I’d love to find a gallery.”

IMAGES COURTESY: THE ARTIST