BIO

Kevin Swallow lives and works in Chicago. Originally from Crestwood, Illinois, he has been creating art since 1995. His art making kicked into gear after being laid off from a job at a magazine, the first day he moved to the city in the fall of 1995. So, he had some time to kill. While looking for work, he explored the city on bike and by foot, shooting photographs of architecture and street scenes along the way. He also spent a lot of time sketching, and then decided to pick up some paints. This gave him a whole new creative outlet as a self-taught artist, which began his serious pursuit of creating art. He painted abstractions for many years then painted cartoon-style portraits and figures for a while. After moving into his first studio in 2006, he combined his love for shooting photos of architecture and cityscapes and began to focus exclusively on those subjects in his paintings.

Kevin travels frequently and draws inspiration from the places he has visited in the U.S., Europe, and Canada. He graduated from Northern Illinois University in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Communications and has studied painting, drawing, and screen printing at Lillstreet Art Center. In recent years, he has exhibited at Palette & Chisel Gallery, Eat Paint Studio, Firecat Projects, and Highland Park Art Center. 

Kevin's work is in various private collections in Illinois; New York; Washington, D.C.; Minnesota; Seattle, WA; Portsmouth, VA; Phoenix, AZ; Knoxville, Tennessee; Barcelona, Spain; Berlin, Germany; Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. His cityscape images are also in various hotels and luxury apartment buildings: Chicago Hilton and Suites, Mile North Hotel, Hyatt Place, Sheraton Hotel and Suites, The Jones, and Xavier. His art has been featured in publications such as: Chicago Sun-Times, Hyperallergic, New City, DNAInfo, NeotericART, and Praeterita. Kevin’s studio is located in Chicago’s Ravenswood Industrial Corridor. 

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