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Jeffrey Kent

United States

Jeffrey Kent is an American multidisciplinary artist and curator whose life’s work embodies healing and wellness through creativity in art making, mentorship, and stewardship. His artwork is conceptual, informed by the historical and the personal, inextricably linked. He utilizes the medium best suited for the subject and temperament of the discussion he is creating. Sculpture and bricolage artworks emphasize the socio-political meaning in ordinary found objects. In critically examining the accessibility of the contemporary Art World, Kent develops live performance and community investment projects.

In addition to his art practice, Jeffrey Kent is the founder of the Subbasement Artist Studios  (2004-2014), an alternative art space in Baltimore and also Amy Sherald’s first artist studio. Co-owner/founder of art and decor retail space, Unexpected Art Space (2013-2016); and co-founder of Connect+Collect (2018 – current), an initiative designed to create awareness and momentum among new and experienced collectors, provide professional development to  Baltimore-based artists, and promote a culture of collecting in Baltimore. He is also actively engaged as the Curator in Residence at The Peale; America’s 1st building designed as a museum. Kent mentors apprentices and artists through an initiative that he founded in 2019; Accomplished Art Apprentices. He uses The Peale as a laboratory to educate young people from marginalized communities; in art handling, installation, and historic preservation. Kent taught fine art at Maryland Institute College of Art (2021-2023). His artwork resides in the collections of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C, Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore, FTI Consulting Inc. in Washington D.C, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Hilton Hotels and Resorts in Baltimore, The Perez Art Museum in Miami, and Robert W. Deutsch Foundation in Baltimore, among others.