John Kearney

John Kearney (born 1924) is a Chicago- and Provincetown-based American artist famous for making figurative sculptures, often of animals, using multiple, found metal objects, specifically bumpers from automobiles.

Life

Kearney received his artistic education at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and the Universita per Stranieri in Perugia, Italy. In 1950, he co-founded the Contemporary Art Workshop in Chicago. Subsequently, he has lived and worked in Italy many times, most notably in Rome 1963-64 while on a Fullbright Award and again in 1985 and 1992 while serving as a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome.

Kearney learned his welding skills as a World War II U.S. Navy sailor while performing underwater repair of naval vessels. []

Awards

*Fulbright Award to Rome in 1963-64
*Italian Government Grant in 1963-64
*Visiting Artists at America Academy in Rome, 1985 and 1992

Colletions that Own Kearney's Work

*Aeon (Standard Oil Building) in Chicago
*Detroit Children's Museum
*Illinois State Capitol Visitors Center, Springfield, IL
*Mitchell Museum, Mt. Vernon, Illinois
*Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
*Ulrich Museum, Wichita, Kansas
*Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, Illinois

Solo Exhibitions

*New York City at A.C.A. Gallery, 1964 to 1979
*Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, MA, 1992 to 1997

Outdoor Sculpture

In Chicago Area

*Academy of Science (T. rex)
*Aeon (formerly the Amoco Building and the Standard Oil Building) (three deer)
*Chicago Park District (two life size Horses)
*Clark and Deming intersection (two goats)
*Elaine Place (two giraffes)
*Field Museum, South Entrance (two bronzes)
*Francis Parker School
*Goudy School (double life-size puma)
*Lincoln Park Zoo (chromium plated bull elephant elephant)
*McCormick Seminary, Hyde Park, on University Avenue north of 55^th Street (a ram named Herald [sic] or Harold) [http://175anniversary.mccormick.edu/history/ware/chapter04/]
*Michigan Avenue Magnificent Mile (moose)
*Museum of Science and Industry (life-size gorilla)
*Oakton Community College
*Oz Park (the Tin Man (1995), Cowardly Lion (2001), Scarecrow (2005), and Dorothy and Toto (2007) from "The Wizard of Oz")
*Sedgwick, 1800 block (two horses)
*Uptown Hull House (gorilla)
*South Prairie Residence (life-size Kodiak bear with cub)

Elsewhere

*Dallas Museum of Natural History ("Chromosaurs": a t-rex, stegosaurus, and triceratops)
*Boys and Girls Club of Fayetteville, Arkansas (life-size giraffe and gorilla)
*Ulrich Museum, Wichita State University, Kansas ("Grandfather's Horse")

Notes

External links

* [http://www.contemporaryartworkshop.org/artists/kearney/kearney.html Contemporary Arts Workshop]
* [http://209.196.183.123/cacartists/kearneyj/ Location of Outdoor Sculpture in Chicago]
* [http://www.bertawalker.com/press/2005-aug-whorf-kearney-deldeo.html Longer review at Berta Walker Gallery]
* [http://www.anatomicallycorrect.org/rock.htm List of outdoor scultpures on Anatomically Correct]
* [http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/columnists/chi-0604160012apr16,1,4112696.column?coll=chi-leisure-col Chicago Tribune article on the Goudy School sculpture]
* [http://175anniversary.mccormick.edu/history/ware/chapter04/ History of "Herald [sic] the Ram" at McCormick seminary]
* [http://magazine.uchicago.edu/UChiBLOGo/04_january/01-14-04_harold.shtml Another version of "Herald [sic] the Ram"]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0i70c0Vcwg Kearney's Chromosaurs Sculptures - Video on YouTube]