Kevin Haas

Artist Bio

Kevin Haas grew up in the rust belt of the Midwest, inspired by the abandoned industrial areas of St Louis, Chicago, Gary and Indianapolis. He earned his BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a MFA from Indiana University where he studied printmaking and digital media. Although he now lives in rural Eastern Washington, where he is an Associate Professor at Washington State University and coordinator of the Printmaking Area, he still seeks out places where human activity has transformed the environment around him. Since 1995 his work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions across the US and in Canada. He has been included in exhibits at Critical Line Gallery in Tacoma, the Jundt Museum in Spokane, and Davidson Gallery in Seattle. He is a recipient of both the Artist Trust Fellowship and GAP grants. In 2006 he chaired the College Art Association panel titled ‘Convergent Theories: Printmaking, Photography and Digital Media” focusing on the interrelationships between these media.

Artist Statement

I document urban and suburban landscapes to explore my experiences of, and relationship to, the everyday built environment. Most recently I have been focusing on locations just off major interstates, and their the seemingly infinite potential for sprawl. When confronted with places like these, I am aware of my own tenuous complicity with them, and the repetitive displacement they create through their ubiquity. The prints I have been creating of this commercial sprawl, have been a way for me to address these issues as well as deal with a built environment that fills an increasing part of our everyday landscape, but often remains overlooked.

Kevin Haas’s Website