Kevin Harman is a Scottish contemporary artist best known for his guerrilla-style interventions into public space, Harman works in various media, from painting to sculpture, and often includes elements of performance and found objects in his work. Harman has said “I like the viewer to be involved at every level; conceptually, technically and physically”.
Harman gives cause to consider the act of making as equally as important as the end result. In his ongoing series of works (Skips I-XIII, ongoing) Harman seeks out a building site skip full of rubbish and then sorts and rearranges the detritus into beautiful sculptures, which in due course will have to be destroyed for the site workers to continue. In another provocative, performative work, Signs of Life (2017/18) Harman noticed hameless man, Stevie, making signs begging for money. Harman encouraged Stevie to make more signs with varied materials, paying money for each one, resulting in an installation at Leith Docks. “The work highlights one individual’s desire for shelter and time spent without it.”
Born in 1982, Harman studied Sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art including an exchange at Kunsthochschule Berlin. He lives and works in Edinburgh, has exhibited internationally at key galleries and museums, including the Ingleby Gallery. He is the recipient of several awards including Art Cologne ‘New Positions’ Artist (2013) and The Honda Dream Factory-Cultural Engineer Award Yoma Sasburg Fellowship for Sculpture-Nominee, both in 2011. He is also Advisor at The Art Room charity, in Wester Hailes, Edinburgh.
