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Jeffrey Kent was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He currently lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland. For Kent: founder of “The One Twenty” (the name he has coined his live/work space), his commitment to communicating ideas through creative expression, and his dedication to community service, are ideals that inform his ongoing journey while enjoying life.

Kent moved to Baltimore, Maryland with his 21 years old mother at age 3 and has many memories of growing up with the neighborhood children of Park Heights, Gwynn Oak, and by age 7 the marginalized part of Ashburton communities in Baltimore. He was raised by his mother- supported by his two Great Aunts and continues to pay homage to them in his artwork and lifestyle of paying it forward. His childhood slipped away as quickly as a game of skully. Before he knew it, he was 13 yrs old drinking, smoking and selling drugs. Being exposed to the fast life meant quick  money but  big repercussions (if caught).

Before Kent knew it… the fast life caught up to him. At age 26, Kent was arrested on charges of possession and conspiracy to distribute controlled substance cocaine. All charges were dropped and expunged from Kent’s record permanently. Kent has no criminal record.

After and because of Kent’s arrest art becomes his passion, mission, business and lifestyle. By age 28 Kent opened his first art space, Handoriginals in the business district of downtown Baltimore, amongst many established commercial art galleries. In less than two years later Kent closed the gallery, and became addicted to freebasing cocaine which later turned his life upside down with crack addiction for more than two years. With loving caring family, friends, a 12 step community and what Kent strongly believes is his main source of inner light- ART; he was able to and still does recover from crack and cocaine addiction.

Kent relocated in 1994 to Chicago shortly after his recovery to return to Baltimore late 1998. In 1999 Kent found a vacant looking warehouse building again in downtown Baltimore in the Abell Building where he started leasing an 8,000 sq ft space for below market rates since the building was falling apart. He used 4,000 sq ft for a live/work space and rented the other side to artist for practically nothing and at times letting artists use the space for free. The Baltimore City Fire Department condemned the building in 2003 due to a basement water main break that caused the city to shut down the busy street for an entire week.

For more than a decade (2003-2014), Kent founded and directed Sub-Basement Artist Studios (Best Gallery, City Paper 2005): a 13,000 sq. ft. underground, artist studios and gallery space located in downtown Baltimore. SBAS was the first artist studio (fresh out of Maryland Institute College of Art / MFA) for 1st Lady Michelle Obama’s official Portraitist Amy Sherald, among others...

It was now the 2008 US recession and Kent had nothing lined up. Never classically trained, but studied rigorously in his studios; he knew other individuals within the Art World. In early 2007, Kent’s critically acclaimed solo exhibition, Good Bad and Ugly at The Creative Alliance, led to his cover feature in Baltimore City Paper. Later that year, Kent was awarded Best Visual Artist by Baltimore City Paper 2008 and featured in Baltimore’s 2008 Top Ten Artist list by the Examiner. Kent then came across a friend who said “why don’t you apply for the graduate program at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art)?” Abstract expressionist painter and founder of the Hoffberger School of Painting at MICA, Grace Hartigan (1922-2008); selected Kent and five other MFA candidates in her final class before passing in late 2008. In 2009 his only son Holind Anayo Kent was born and has lived with his mother in Lagos, Nigeria since he was 3 years old.

ARTKent is a multidisciplinary artist. His artwork is conceptual, informed by the historical and the personal, inextricably linked. He utilizes the medium best suited for the subject and temperament of the discussion he is creating. His acrylic-based paintings are generally large works, dramatic in gesture, color, layering, composition, and presentation. Sculpture and bricolage works emphasize the socio-political meaning in ordinary objects of daily life. In critically examining the accessibility of the contemporary Art World, Kent develops live performance and community investment projects.

Kent received his Masters in Fine Art from MICA in 2010. Kents exhibitions include: Art in Embassies in Rome, Italy, Preach! (solo) at the Frederick Douglass- Isaac Myers Maritime Museum in Baltimore, MD, For Whom It Stands: The Flag and the American People, Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, Baltimore, MD, Surface from Under the Microscope: The Henrietta Lacks Series (solo) at Howard University Interdisciplinary Research Building, Washington D.C. and most recently the National Academy of Science. Kent’s numerous permanent collections include: National Academy of Sciences, Hilton Hotels and Resorts, FTI Consulting Inc., The Robert W. Deutsch Foundation and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African-American History & Culture. The artistic vision of Kent has been an important contribution to this continuous spectrum of urban cultural expression and identity.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

In addition to his art practice, Jeffrey Kent opened his first art gallery two years after being introduced to the Art World naming it Handoriginals Art Gallery (1992-1994), founded the Subbasement Artist Studios (2004-2014), an alternative art space in Baltimore; co-owner/co-founder of art and decor retail space, Unexpected Art Space (2013-2016); and co-founder of Connect+Collect (2018 - current), an initiative designed to create awareness and momentum among new and experienced collectors, provide professional development to Baltimore-based artists, and promote a culture of collecting in Baltimore. Since 2019, Kent has been the Director of Outreach and Promotion for BmoreArt; an independent, Baltimore-based magazine that reflects the art and culture of our city and the surrounding region. He is also actively engaged as the Artistic Director of The Peale Center; America's 1st building designed as a museum. Kent provides collecting and curatorial services for private and corporate collectors and mentors apprentices and artists through his LLC, Accomplished Art Services.