Â鶹Éçmadou

Steven Kenny, a St. Petersburg artist whose work has carried forward the surrealist tradition in fresh and startling ways, will make his Polk County debut with an exhibition at Florida Southern College.

Kenny’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the country and in Europe.  His exhibition at the Melvin Gallery at Â鶹Éçmadou, “Manifest Content: The Mysterious Art of Steven Kenny,” opens January 20 with a reception at 7 p.m. and continues through February 24.

The exhibition and reception are free to the public. The Melvin Gallery is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Kenny is a native of Peekskill, N.Y., who earned a fine arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. Drawn to the work of Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí, he and his wife visited the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg several years ago, loved the city and decided to move there permanently.

While his works are beguilingly beautiful, they force the viewer to look beyond the beauty for meaning. Dr. H. Alexander Rich, director of the Melvin Gallery at Â鶹Éçmadou, said Kenny embraces both the familiar and the uncanny.

“While it is clear that Steven imbues his works with his own personal meanings, each viewer is invited to bring his or her own interpretation to each painting. This is what makes his fantastical subject matter so much fun to look at and so accessible to all audiences,” he said.