Kevin Demery’s work explores the interplay between U.S. history and signifiers of power, developing an artistic language that invites the viewer to move between the aesthetic of his work and recurring motifs of historical violence, surveillance, and childhood trauma. He uses sculpture as a vehicle to engage audiences with iconic elements such as children’s puzzles, wind chimes, and plaster-cast hands to refer to specific histories and poetically interpret them within larger cultural experiences.

Demery received his BFA from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, CA in 2014 and his MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, IL in 2018. He is a full-time professor at the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, MO. He is one of three recipients of the 2024 Charlotte Street Visual Artist Awards and his work is currently on view at the Nelson Atkins Museum in Kansas City as part of the award exhibition. He also participated in the Delta Triennial at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Art in Little Rock, AR and Art Cologne in Cologne, Germany with Sakhile&Me Gallery in 2024.