Artist Statement
My current studio practice explores the tensions, affinities and ambiguities between text and drawing. I see the graphic fixity of letterforms as a sharp contrast to the fluid complexity of drawing. Although text can be self-evident, it is not possible to apprehend drawing in the same way, and the space between these ways of comprehension is full of unstable meanings. The terse phrasing of my writing touches upon anxiety, poetic notions, existential dilemmas, and humorous antagonism. The imagery in my work comes from everyday experiences and is focused on a general uneasiness about the state of the world. The work as a whole invites questions about creative effort, permanence, and the struggle to communicate.
Bio
Kevin Haas is an artist based in the Inland Northwest who works across printmaking, drawing, artist books, installations and design. 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. He has received grants from ArtsIdaho and Artist Trust, from which he also received a fellowship in 2004. He has been an artist in residence at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, the Jentel Artist Residency, Open Studio Toronto, and the Frans Masreel Cetrum in Belgium. In Chicago, he worked at Anchor Graphics, as well as Landfall Press, and has since served as a collaborative printer for a variety of artists, often under the imprint Inland Editions. He is a professor at Washington State University, and was the co-coordinator for the Rocky Mountain Printmaking Alliance 2018 Conference in Pullman, WA and Moscow, ID.
