Kevan Dale Popular Books

Kevan Dale Biography & Facts

Annie Kevans (born Cannes, France) is an English artist who paints series of 'portraits' that explore sometimes controversial concepts and alternative histories. They are "portraits only in a loose sense... her works being a composite of existing images, research and imagination". Kevans has been described as "sensitive yet fearless, an artist who tackles controversial subjects head on". She was named number 19 in Harper's Bazaar magazine's "Forty Under 40" chart of hot new British talent and was named number 32 in New Woman magazine's "Brit Hit List" and was described as the "new Tracey Emin". She is married to Will Kevans with whom she has one daughter. Early life Kevans was born in 1972 in Cannes, France, to British parents. She was educated in France and England and subsequently took her part-time BA at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (1999–2004). While studying there, she supported herself by working at the V&A Museum of Childhood in London's East End. During this time, she also studied part-time for an MA in Museum & Gallery Management at City University in London. In an interview for Running in Heels, Polly Allen says: "Growing up in a family of fearless and high-achieving women, [Kevans] describes herself as “a natural feminist. It wasn’t even a question for me.” She could take her pick from role models, such as her two great-aunts (Eleanor, one of the first female bosses in the UK who worked in the male-dominated gas industry, and Trubody, who was a spy and a member of MI6 with a Bronze Star Medal for bravery)." Work Boys The 30 paintings from the series Boys, from Kevans' BA Degree show at Central Saint Martins, were bought in their entirety by Charles Saatchi in 2004. These paintings showed 20th Century tyrants, dictators and war criminals such as Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot and Radovan Karadžić as young children. Kevans has repeatedly expressed her gratitude to Saatchi "because he kept the series together... people had been trying to buy bits and pieces of it – they all wanted Hitler". Kevans revealed that "having spent months looking for snapshots of infant autocrats at play, she eventually gave up. "I thought, 'Does it matter anyway if I make them up?' It caused quite a lot of debate". The series received positive reviews when it was shown at the Saatchi Gallery in London in 2013 and was described as "the highlight of a new exhibition called, simply, Paper" by Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail. The works were described as "provocative and haunting" and "fresh". Gods and Aliens Gods and Aliens (2004) looked at the human need to believe and featured portraits of leading religious figures as well as leaders in the field of ufology. Girls Kevans' third series, Girls, dealing with the sexualisation of childhood and exhibited at London's Studio1.1 gallery in 2006, was an installation of a girl's bedroom complete with bed, a lampshade, teddy bears and other childhood toys and memorabilia. The Sunday Times said: "the portraits are all somewhat suggestive: [Britney] Spears is depicted in her bra, while [Brooke] Shields is shown at 12, when she became famous as a hooker in the film Pretty Baby". Elle magazine described the series as unsettling: "Don’t be fooled by her wide-eyed adolescents: dark themes hide behind those soft brush strokes... the unsettling contrast of purity and corruption has proved a big hit".Two of the works from Girls were selected for the Jerwood Drawing Prize in 2006 and toured the UK as part of the exhibition. Swans and Mouseketeers Kevans' next solo exhibition, entitled Swans, shown in June 2007 at 319 Portobello Road, focused on the "American Dream" and included an image of Jessica Dubroff, a seven-year-old pilot who was attempting to become the youngest person to fly an airplane across the United States. Dubroff was killed 24 hours into the flight when her plane crashed. She was, "Inspired by an American makeover programme called The Swan where women of low self-esteem are transformed by plastic surgery. For me it exemplifies society's obsession with youth and beauty." The exhibition included paintings of Mouseketeers Doreen Tracey and Britney Spears. All 27 paintings in the Swans exhibition sold out as soon as it opened and Kevans was therefore able to give up her day job as a secretary to focus on her art full-time. China Kevans' China series (2005) looked at China's "One Child" policy, which forces many families to have only one child in order to keep China's population growth under control. In an interview with Time Out, London, Kevans said "[Chinese Lolita] is not an actual person. She's part of a new series of paintings of Chinese children with Western ideals projected onto them. I was interested in the contradiction of China's one child policy, which focuses all the attention on a single child, in a society that's based on communal ideals". Vamps and Innocents In September 2007, Kevans exhibited a new series of paintings she had been working on, called Vamps and Innocents, for a solo show in Vienna, based on the silent films of the 1920s and its stars. She said, "the portraits are of the '20s female movie stars who were forced to either play the role of the virgin or the whore." WAMPAS Baby Stars Continuing on with her interest in reinvention and manipulation, Kevans painted the WAMPAS Baby Stars series in 2009, portraying starlets selected for stardom by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers, between 1922 and 1934. The WAMPAS Constitution affirmed that each WAMPAS member should feel an “ever-present consciousness of his responsibility to the profession he publicizes, the industry he represents and to the public whose tendencies, thoughts and impulses he is such a factor in forming and directing”. With this in mind, the girls were given new identities then presented to the world at the annual "WAMPAS Frolic", where their all American beauty could be celebrated and idealised. Although Joan Crawford, Mary Astor, and Fay Wray became Hollywood hits, most Baby Stars were not destined for stardom. Of the 143 girls, most were unable to pursue careers in the "talkies" and rapidly disappeared from public consciousness. Today, their images remain lost in Hollywood archives. Ship of Fools Kevans's solo exhibition at the Fine Art Society in 2009 featured successful men and women who have been dogged by depression, eating disorders, addiction and other forms of mental illnesses. Michael Jackson, Winston Churchill, Mark Twain, Drew Barrymore and Princess Diana all feature, alongside the tortured artists Van Gogh, Jackson Pollock and Georgia O'Keeffe. "I've always been interested in madness – there's a lot of it in my family," says Kevans, who was inspired by medieval images of European towns shipping their deranged inhabitants out to sea. The private view was held on board the Golden Hinde and was the first-ever exhibition to be staged on the reconstructed Tudor warship. "It's quite smal.... Discover the Kevan Dale popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Kevan Dale books.

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  • Ghost at Dusk synopsis, comments

    Ghost at Dusk

    Kevan Dale

    He’s been trapped in his home since he died. If he can’t outwit the demon holding him captive, he’ll never be free. Tim Lane is running out of time. Since dying on Halloween 1981,...

  • Ghost at Dawn synopsis, comments

    Ghost at Dawn

    Kevan Dale

    Unless everything she knows about the afterlife is a lie, she’s about to fade for good.  Karen Jarvis’s overthinking never stops, not even in death. To cope, the former child...

  • The Magic of Unkindness synopsis, comments

    The Magic of Unkindness

    Kevan Dale

    Everyone she knows is dead. If she can’t master her powers, she’ll be next.   Boston, Eighteenth Century. Kate Finch is desperate for a fresh start. Recently arrived from Lond...

  • Shades of the Grave synopsis, comments

    Shades of the Grave

    Kevan Dale

    Ghosts. Devils. Zombies.  The dead don’t stay quiet in these three complete novels of supernatural horror unlike anything you’ve read. From the unquiet grave come infern...

  • Revolutionary Dead synopsis, comments

    Revolutionary Dead

    Kevan Dale

    A horror novel like you’ve never imagined. Zombies like you’ve never seen. William’s bad luck is about to turnfor the worse. Trapped behind enemy lines on the eve of revolution, t...

  • The Books of Conjury synopsis, comments

    The Books of Conjury

    Kevan Dale

    Your favorite new fantasy heroine’s finest hour awaits her in this breathtaking trilogy. For the first time, all three novels in The Books of Conjury are together in one ebook col...

  • Meditations synopsis, comments

    Meditations

    Marcus Aurelius

    Marcus Aurelius was born in Rome in 121 AD and would become its Emperor from 161 to 180. Considered by Machiavelli as the last of the good Emperors, Marcus Aurelius would become on...

  • The Grave Raven synopsis, comments

    The Grave Raven

    Kevan Dale

    To fulfill her oath, she must enter a world of evil. To serve her mentor, she must help him release its power.   Massachusetts, 1737. Kate Finch is determined to keep her word...

  • Kevin Dale Evans v. State Texas synopsis, comments

    Kevin Dale Evans v. State Texas

    Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas

    Appellant contends that the trial court erred in overruling his motion to suppress and in admitting into evidence the heroin that was seized. We agree and reverse the judgment.

  • The Halls of Midnight synopsis, comments

    The Halls of Midnight

    Kevan Dale

    She fears she’s apprenticed to a monster. But one way or another, this young witch won’t let the world fall into darkness.   18thCentury Boston. It’s only a matter of time bef...