Kenney Mencher is an American painter. He is Associate Professor of Art and Art History as well as the director and curator of the Louie-Meager Art Gallery at

Ohlone College Ohlone College (Ohlone or OC) is a public community college with its main campus in Fremont, California and a second campus in Newark. It is part of the California Community College System. The Ohlone Community College District serves the cit ...

in Fremont,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, and he has previously taught at institutions including the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

and

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

. He is also the author of ''Liaisons: Readings in Art, Literature and Philosophy'', a thematically-framed textbook about how the study of culture relates to students' other classes and to life in general.

Early life and education

Mencher was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in 1965. He graduated from Lehman College of the City University of New York in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in

art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

. Subsequently, he earned a master's degree in art history from the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...

in 1994 and then a master of fine arts degree from the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,0 ...

in 1995.

Exhibitions

Mencher's work has appeared in a number of solo and two-person shows at galleries throughout the United States. He is represented by Elliott Fouts Gallery in

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and Klaudia Marr Gallery in Santa Fe. He was profiled in the June 2007 issue of ''

The Artist's Magazine ''The Artist's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine for artists formerly published by F+W Media in Cincinnati, Ohio. The magazine was founded in 1983 and claims a circulation of 60,000. The founding company was Fletcher Art Services. F&W Publications ...

'', and has been a contributing author to that publication as well. Some of his prior installations include shows at Octavia's Haze Gallery and at Varnish Fine Art in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, at the

Los Gatos Los Gatos (, ; ) is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population is 33,529 according to the 2020 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area just southwest of San Jose in the foothills of th ...

Art Museum, at the Triton Museum of Art in

Santa Clara, California Santa Clara (; Spanish for " Saint Clare") is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 127,647 at the 2020 census, making it the eighth-most populous city in the Bay Area. Located in the southern Bay Area, the cit ...

, in the "Lucky Seven" group show at the Dahlia Woods Gallery in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, and at Amrithika Gallery in

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

. He has also done live painting demonstrations at galleries, as well as benefit nights to help organizations such as

826 Valencia 826 Valencia is a non-profit organization in the Mission District of San Francisco, California, United States, dedicated to helping children and young adults develop writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. It was ...

. He has a show up at ArtHaus in

, which was reviewed in ''ARTWORKS Magazine'' and ''American Artist''.

Themes

Mencher depicts scenes filled with ambiguous stories, allowing the viewers to join in the creation process. Common themes include people whispering, half-full (or half-empty) drinking glasses, the visual exploration of clichés, film noir themes, sequential narratives, and

thematic apperception test Thematic apperception test (TAT) is a projective psychological test developed during the 1930s by Henry A. Murray and Christiana D. Morgan at Harvard University. Proponents of the technique assert that subjects' responses, in the narratives they ...

s. Mencher hosts a blog on his web site, showing viewers the development of several of his paintings, including the source material he uses. He also hosts an online forum on his web site, where viewers are able to express their thoughts on his work by submitting their own poetry. Additionally, he has hosted a contest, allowing viewers to submit title suggestions for an already-completed painting (eventually titled ''Chromosomal Variation'').

Controversy

Mencher's body of work includes female and male nudes, including larger men who are not often the subjects of such work. Gallery shows of his work have encountered resistance and controversy. In 2003, Hang Gallery in

stopped showing his work, with the gallery director calling it "wry and perverted." In 2004, four paintings were removed from his exhibit at the California State Teachers' Retirement System office in

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

, after some female employees said the sexual context of the works made them uncomfortable.

Influences

Mencher's work is greatly influenced by art history and literature. For example, ''Water Carrier of Seville'' by Diego Velázquez inspired his own work ''Water Carrier of Fremont'', Caravaggio's '' The Calling of Saint Matthew'' was reimagined as Mencher's ''The Calling of Marc'', and the realist paintings of

Edward Hopper Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realist painter and printmaker. While he is widely known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching. Hopper created subdued drama ...

have also inspired his vision and style. The essay ''

Death of the Author "The Death of the Author" (French: ''La mort de l'auteur'') is a 1967 essay by the French literary critic and theorist Roland Barthes (1915–1980). Barthes's essay argues against traditional literary criticism's practice of relying on the intent ...

'' by

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popula ...

shaped Mencher's thoughts that the viewer can never precisely know what the painter intends. He also cites film noir and television as major influences on his work. Mencher often uses his wife, friends, family pets, and students as inspiration and models for his paintings, and they in turn may suggest storylines and poses for the work in progress.

References

External links

Artist's home pageMencher's work at Elliott Fouts Gallery

Mencher's work at Octavia's Haze Gallery

Ohlone College - Louie-Meager Art Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mencher, Kenney 1965 births Living people 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters American contemporary painters Painters from New York City Painters from California Ohlone College alumni Lehman College alumni University of California, Davis alumni University of Cincinnati alumni 20th-century American male artists