About the artist:

Ken Mabrey’s work documents the American scene in the tradition of Bellows, Bishop, Hopper, Marsh and Sloan. Taking mundane, everyday events such as playing, driving and shopping, he translates them into joyous celebrations braced with irony and tempered with fantasy: "My work is conceived from an automatic painting method in which I mark the canvas, the page, or the litho-stone at random. These markings stimulate my imagination into visualizing abstractions of a locale or a figure. The process then becomes a problem-solving situation. A conversation between the artist and work evolves as follows: How do I populate this space? How can I bring it to life? What is the pivotal point or image upon which this work turns? How should the light fall and how will it best support the narrative elements? Will a cast shadow create another figure? What does it imply in the story line? After this drawing process is far enough along, the locale is established, and characters are delineated. Then that fifth wheel of color comes into play, deliberately throwing the drawing off. How do I change the scene to compensate for these color shifts? What is the proper color weight and intensity to make this work hang together? It is a constant back and forth, check and balance of color and drawing until the piece is complete, revealing something about this strange dance we call life. I obscure to reveal. One must sort through these paintings little by little, watching out for the barbs. Enjoy!" EDUCATION 1981 MFA, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT 1979 BFA, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN TEACHING 1993-2001 Instructor of painting, drawing, printmaking and clay sculpture, The Art Studios at Absolom Jones Community Center 1981-1987 Painting and drawing critiques, Yale Summer School of Art, Norfolk, CT Assistant to the Director, Yale Summer School of Art, Norfolk, CT 1980-1981 Lithography Teaching Assistant, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT AWARDS AND HONORS 1994 Published in New American Paintings Number Two 1990 Delaware State Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship Grant 1989 Fleischer Art Memorial Challenge Exhibition #2 1978 Yale/Norfolk Fellowship SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2005 Cross-Country Run, Recent Work by Ken Mabrey, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE 2003 Ken Mabrey: Cartoons, Auto Portraits and Burning Down the House, Delaware Division of the Arts Mezzanine Gallery, Wilmington, DE 2002 Paintings Past and Present, Cecil Community College Gallery Ken Mabrey Ice Cream Days, Blue Streak Gallery, Wilmington, DE 2000 Out of the Racks, Twenty Plus Years of Painting, Pierre S. duPont Arts Center, Wilmington, DE 1999 Carpe Diem: Works on Paper, Blue Streak Gallery, Wilmington, DE 1996 Ken Mabrey Transportation and Waterworks, McKinney Galleries, West Chester University, West Chester, PA 1993 A Fair to Remember: Paintings and Drawings by Ken Mabrey, Delaware State Arts Council Gallery, Wilmington, DE 1992 Urbanities, Paintings and Drawings by Ken Mabrey, Temple University School of Law, Philadelphia, PA 1991 From Paper to Canvas, Delaware State Arts Council Gallery, Wilmington, DE 1989 Fleischer Art Memorial Challenge Exhibition #2, Philadelphia, PA 1985 Ken Mabrey One Man Show, Mona Berman Gallery, New Haven, CT GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2005 Parallel Vision Sister City Connection Project, Wilmington, DE 2001 Obsessive Drawing, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, DE 2000 SYNE: Seven Bridges, Pierre S. duPont Arts Center, Wilmington, DE 1998 20x12: A Generation of Challenge Artists, Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, PA 1996 City Lights: Art and Poetry on City Living, Borowsky Gallery, Philadelphia, PA Biennial '96, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE COLLECTIONS Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE News Journal Paper, Wilmington, DE Wilmington Trust Bank, Wilmington, DE ALICO, Wilmington, DE Bank One/First U.S.A., Wilmington, DE