Shane Kennedy is well known for his ‘Combines,’ a unique style of art that features everyday objects, blurring the lines between painting, sculpture and composition. Kennedy’s works capture the unique dichotomies between two opposing concepts such as garbage and natural objects.

He often starts with a single, common artifact for material like a cardboard box, a tool, or a scrap of metal or wood and then the combination of simple objects become his palette. His work can be interpreted in many ways, as a composition, a cultural statement, or a pile of junk turned into a timeless work of art. The work is composed of time and culture, fashion and discarded objects. A chair part with one hundred years of stories juxtaposed next to discarded product packaging. Ultimately, it’s about recycling the past and composing the found objects into an inspirational future.

In 1980’s New York City, after first working in fashion design, Kennedy founded Furniture Club with fellow designer Don Ruddy and together, they designed and constructed dyed concrete furniture. They were a critical player in the Art Furniture movement in New York and were published in the New York Times, Abitare and Interior Design magazine. With big cities as his backdrop, New York and eventually San Francisco, provided Kennedy with a steady supply of material from the streets and junkyards. Now living full time in Marin County, the juxtaposition of nature and the same objects from his earlier works have evolved into this collection. Any piece can have a component he discovered yesterday next to one he has had for decades.

Kennedy studied drawing and painting at The Art Students League in New York, sculpture and welding at Silvermine Artists Guild.