Kevin Starr is Charlotte’s Andy Warhol. He is, or has been, an award winning hair stylist, a pianist, photographer, painter and now — in his most recent incarnation — a Plaza Midwood provocateur.
The Kevin Starr Art Studio is in a cubed brick building in a sea of asphalt behind the Family Dollar store on Central Avenue. His studio is one of the new art emporiums cropping up in various unexpected dollops of recently ignored property off the beaten path. He’s new breath; always a good thing.
The artist Kevin Starr is an artist who brings to mind a blob of mercury floating on a sheet of glass — hard not to look at, hard to pin down. His work careens between high-style fashion photography and high-impact, guts-laid-bare painting. His two personalities meld the self conscious stylishness of fashion with the messy goo of a painterly emotional blitz — kind of like Kate Moss on acid. An unsettling, but temporarily intoxicating, mix.
The fashion photography looks to me like it could have jumped off the pages of Vogue or Cosmo. Dramatic, sometimes feral looking women pout and often sprout feathers. Tightly-bound torsos in satin or silk and synthetic, shiny garb titillate and enrapture the looker. It works OK for me, but I’ll defer to Tyra.
Starr’s paintings are expressionistic, pure color or near-pure color, combinations of subject matter dominated by human forms. He includes man-made forms made organic under the artist’s hand. His forms vibrate in fields of saturated primary and tertiary hues. And stun on impact. His art is take your breath away — either loathing or exhilaration. Different strokes.
Starr has traveled many roads which have now led here. He is part of Charlotte. Go see his paintings, and the paintings of those he considers worthy, in September. For information go to kevinsstarrartstudio.com.
This article appears in Sep 5-11, 2007.
Calling this dude Charlotte’s Andy Warhol is like calling a wet fart music. Did you see the huge Plaza-Midwood photo collage mess he made? It hung at the library until the librarians were tired of looking at it. His art gallery will probably go as well as his art magazine did. It was sooooo gay…and pointless.
Kevin Starr has proved his ablilities as a determined and real painter and photographer. His activism in this City of an uneducated art society to bring something new is Charlottes luck. The art community should embrace his obvisous creative, independent, and original talents in his art and his other projects, compared to the mediocre attempts made by the corporate socially affected so called artists and photographers in this city. Naturally his originality is going to fire up some people who attempt, oh so obviously pretentiously, what his talents are.
Kudos Kevin!
Granted, Andy Warhol is not the most accurate description for Kevin. The only person that is like Andy Warhol is Andy Warhol. But Kevin, in his own right, is trying to bring to the Charlotte art scene (however small) a level of excitement and something interesting. NoDa has become so sanitized and in a word, dull. Kevin has passion, drive and the desire to bring new art to Charlotte for people that want to view and buy art because it is inspiring, not to impress guests at a dinner party.
the 1st guy was right. Kevin Starr’s art is lame – boring and forgetable
When my husband and I discovered Mr. Starr here in Charlotte we immediately knew his potential and his destiny. We have purchased 4 of his large canvases, 2 of which hang in my husbands firm. Like many good, even great, artists – Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime – the lack of appreciation from much of the community is from lack of experience, education and understanding of art. I would strongly recommend anyone in the community, including the local arts, visit Mr. Starr’s studio and experience the creative energy that is alive and expanding. He is also the most original photographer in the city, which unfortunately and understandably hasn’t caught the eye of the local publications. Mr. Starr’s work is full of life, large with confidence, and has depth of meaning – it being on a fundamental level or intellectual level. My husband, along with our well-versed art friends, and me will support Mr. Starr to his highest creative aspirations possible. I’m sure Charlotte needs him more than he needs Charlotte.
Lauren Caswell-Sutten
All Mr. Starr has done is copied any artist in Sav. he admired. ,His Art is as phony as his name.His real name is Hershal Crumbley The Incredible MR. Crumbley,
He is doing a bad job at copying.Patric Mcay,Dereck Goddard,And Myself Laura DiNello..This is to the well versed art friends in Charlotte…Savannah did not need him anyway..
The comments on this page to the effect that people in Charlotte don’t know anything about art is absolutely astonishing. I can’t believe that you can sit there and talk about how ‘wonderful’ and ‘vibrant’ kevin starr is while downtalking all other charlotte artists.
Keep in mind that you are also insulting yourself when you speak of how uneducated Charlotteans are when it comes to art. So why should we take your opinion seriously if you are just another ‘one of us.’
Kevin Starr has some very nice art, and some very bad art, just like every other artist. But to raise him above anyone else here in town, is silly. But then again, you are just ‘Charlotteans’
He’s a pimp with many names
Star , crumbley his real name?
This guy kevin star is a crook & pimp faker!
Provacatuer aka : PIMP!!