Kevin Best

BAROQUE GRANDEUR
EVERLASTING BEAUTIES

In no era was the still life more important than the seventeenth century. Numerous types of still lifes emerged, which were to appeal to and stimulate viewers’ sensory perception.

The genre’s earliest form was the banketjes, or banquet still lifes. An arranged table, covered with culinary specialties, fine vessels, and luxurious textiles, took the foreground in this type of image. Still life masters hoped to achieve the most realistic depiction possible; it was their goal to create the perfect illusion. Photographer Kevin Best now turns the process on its head. With his studies he captures the atmosphere that must have reigned in his forerunners’ ateliers. With meticulousness and a love of detail, Best quotes Dutch still life painters from Holland and Flanders, in particular Pieter Claesz, David Bailly and Willem Kalf, whose pictures he sets up true to the originals. He interprets the Old Masters in a modern manner. At first glance his compositions have the same effect as those of the Old Masters, but a closer look reveals the image as photographic, modifying the traditional mode of observation with an ironic twist.

Solo Exhibitions

2010	QUT Art Museum , Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
2009	Australian National Portrait Gallery Canberra, Australia
	Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery , Australia
	Redland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
	Noosa Regional Gallery , Tewantin, Australia
	Gladstone Regional Gallery, Gladstrone, Australia

Group Exhibitions

from 2007

The Australian Centre for Photography, Paddington, Australia