Kevin Collins

Kevin Collins studied under Stanley Pinker, Helmut Starke and Cecil Skotnes at Michaelis, UCT in the late seventies with painting as his specialisation. These men provided him with the basis of how he use colour, composition and actually lay the paint down: all of these learnings he has now ‘translated’ into his new medium of ceramics.

His subject matter is collected from years of travelling (many miles from the age of three) and making small sketches and picking up little bits of visual imagery from packaging, transport tickets, and sweet wrappers - from Mandalay to Dharamsala. Some imagery emerges from his childhood and early and continued love of illustrated story books.

After graduating, he worked in brand communications and stopped painting for close on twenty years. Then an unfortunate health trauma made him seriously consider what he really wanted to do, and he started painting again. He started painting small works mostly of animals which formed the basis of his first solo show in 2003 titled 'The Taxonomy of non endangered Species' at Gallery Moja in Johannesburg. Following this, he has contributed to numerous group shows in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Large solo in 2021 and during Covid perfected his understanding of ceramics now his chosen medium. He has works in public and private collections in Australia, America, Argentina, Holland, Germany and UK as well as South Africa.