Ken Grimes
Born in New York in 1947, Ken Grimes grew up in Cheshire, Connecticut. When he was in his twenties, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was forced to abandon his university studies. At the end of the Vietnam War, his father, who headed an arms manufacturing company, sold his business and built a tennis center, which would become a central theme in his son’s drawings. “I think my father felt somewhat responsible for my illness, so in a way, he wanted to be involved,” Grimes explained.
Working almost exclusively with black and white acrylic paint on canvases or hardboard, Ken Grimes explores esoteric and scientific data he gathers from his readings on ufology and science fiction. His works thus appear as the product of his reflections and interpretations of messages received from extraterrestrial intelligence.
His paintings oscillate between fantasy and austerity but are often both at once: infinite variations on the conceptual theme of extraterrestrial intelligence. They serve as a window to a world where flying saucers, UFOs, crop circles, radio telescopes, and interstellar signals are integral to reality.
Grimes’ personal mythology is a pastiche of his autobiography, imagery from outer space, and carefully selected references to pop culture, science fiction, and astronomy. In some of his works, all figurative elements are abandoned in favor of more or less accessible textual messages.
In her most recent works on paper, originally conceived as preliminary pieces for larger compositions but later developed as independent works, Grimes intertwines excerpts from her favorite writers. It is possible to find passages from Carl Sagan and Frank Drake, which are woven into the artist’s own narrative voice. Her works bear witness to the ongoing thought process that occupies her mind.
