Devin Kenny

18 September 2024
Man in front of blank white wall with medium brown skin and short beard. wearing a green corduroy hat, black framed glasses., green collared shirt, yellow sweater, and brown leather coat.
Photo: © Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman

Devin Kenny is an artist, writer, and musician, and a dPhil Candidate in Fine Art at the University of Oxford. Kenny received a Master of Fine Arts from University of California, Los Angeles, in addition to attending the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York. He has participated in residencies at the Rauschenberg Foundation, SOMA Mexico, Bemis Center, MFAH Core, Shandaken Projects, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

Kenny has exhibited, performed, and lectured across the United States and in galleries and institutions abroad, including MoMA PS1, The Kitchen, Performance Space, REDCAT, Queens Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, and the IMT Gallery in London, among others. He is currently developing a new film about ciphers in various iterations, from cryptography to hip hop and more. A section of that film traces the word cipher through Latin, Arabic, and Hindi, and connects it to the history of zero.

Previous artworks by Kenny have been heavily influenced by the ethnomathematics research of Professor Ron Eglash, exploring use of fractals in various African cultures’ architecture, hairstyles, and more, as well as the history of binary code in Bamana sand divination.