Ken Echezabal was born in Ybor City, the historic Latin quarter of Tampa. He is grandson to four cigar rollers and to this day lives in his Grandmothers house in west Tampa, or Little Havana. After a misguided youth, Ken turned to art where he painted murals and backdrops for the wild Ybor nightspots of the 1980s. In 1988, inspired by Keith Harings Pop Shop, Warhols Factory, and the human desire to be your own boss, he opened Dog Eat Dog studio in his beloved Ybor. The studio was home to Kens frenzied fluorescent art wear t-shirts, tuxes, jewelry, suitcases, you name it. From 1988 to 1992 Dog Eat Dog was the place for Tampas hippies, freaks, musicians, and an endless line of hip young things to buy original and affordable art. After Dog closed its doors (and later burnt to the ground!), Ken focused on commissioned works, his academic training, and busied himself with several shows in Tampa and New York.
Currently, Ken is obsessed with his secret meditative painting technique. He considers himself an optical explorer and illusionist. The technique arrived when he, frustrated from years of art school training and exact classic renderings, cursed the paintbrush and shunned it as a medieval tool. The result is a shock wave style that is physically, mentally and optically hypnotic to the observer. The colors and patterns seem to vibrate, to actually move on the canvas. Ken claims they will stimulate your serotonin levels. In 2006 he met his match in the form of an elfin muse smoking a cigarette on a bench in Ybor. This elf inspired him to re-examine the meaning of everything and she led his art into playful chaos. Fun is the new objective and fairy tale creatures are the new cast. Of course, there is a twist, as Ken considers art the final frontier of free speech. His current collection freezes and documents the second between life and death be it the demise of a Madonna and child, Christmas elves or a storybook world. Ken Echezabal has created a spiritual form of painting.
EXHIBITS and INSTALLATIONS:
2006 Hypnopolyvinyl, Para Gallery, Ybor City, FL
2005 Liquid Experiments, McCraig-Welles Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2004 Oye, Tampa!, Local Laitn artists group exhibit
2003 Evil Patterns, Covivant Gallery, Tampa, FL
2002 Hypnotica Hyde Park fine arts, Tampa, FL
2000 Delusions of love, Silver Meteor Gallery, Ybor City, FL
1998 Lobster Girl Venus, Click Gallery and Studios, NYC, NY
1992-88 Dog Eat Dog Studio (owner & operator), Ybor City, FL
1985 Psychedelic Boheme, Steven Gill Gallery, NYC, NY
COMMISSION WORK: 1997-85
Murals
Pleasuredome (nightclub), Ybor City, FL
Parthenon (nightclub), downtown Tampa, FL
Masquerade (nightclub), Ybor City, FL
Apocalypse at Ritz Theater (nightclub), Ybor City, FL
Tracks (nightclub), Ybor City, FL
Leather Tiger Tattoos, Ybor City, FL
DNA, (nightclub), Tampa, FL
Golden Nugget (bar), Tampa, FL
Paintings
Don Vicente Historic Inn, Ybor City, FL
The Castle (nightclub), Ybor City, FL
The Fly Trap (nightclub), Ybor City, FL
Tampa Bone Yard, Ybor City, FL
© 2010 kenechezabal.com
