Kenneth Showell

Born in Huron, South Dakota, Kenneth Showell grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and attended the Kansas City Art Institute and Indiana University. He made his home in New York City working as a painter and photographer. Showell was part of the Lyrical Abstraction movement and his work is held by the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago, as well as in private collections worldwide.

Early Work

Examples of early abstract work.

Abstracts

Examples of intermediate abstracts.

Sheep's Meadow Series

A series of paintings and studies of the sky over Sheep's Meadow in Central Park.

Bakaty's Wall Series

A group of paintings, pastels and studies of a building on Houston Street in New York City.

Central Park Trees

A study of the same tree in Central Park over the course of different seasons.

Central Park

Central Park was a favorite subject. Showell would often set up a video camera, taping a certain landscape for an hour at a time, while he worked on the New York Times crossword puzzle. He would then take the tape back to his studio where he would let it run while he painted.

Flowers

Later in life, Showell became interested in still lifes, working with fruits and flowers, producing numerous canvasses.

Fruit

Memorial Shows

Kenneth Showell received two memorial shows produced by friends and family, one in New York following his death in 1997 and the other in Omaha ten years later.

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Sheep's Meadow Series

Bakaty's Wall Series

Central Park Trees