Patrick Kikut
Artist

In 1987 at the age of 21, Patrick Kikut was in Boulder, Colorado when he started thinking of himself as an artist. It was there where he developed an approach to his studio work which usually begins with a desire to learn (and experience) a particular landscape.

 

Kikut’s priority is to explore landscapes as much as he can.  This tactic has provided him an expansive and unique “artistic neighborhood.”  This “artistic neighborhood” reaches from Great Falls, Montana in the North, to El Paso (or Marfa) Texas, in the South, and from Dodge City, Kansas, and West to Reno, Nevada.  This is where he has primarily operated for the last 35 years.  Kikut is keeping an eye on the less protected landscapes.  Developments come and go through boom-and-bust cycles.  He is a witness to Iandscapes being encroached upon and in other places development dissolving back into the land.  It is his hope that his work is represents the enduring beauty and fragility of the everchanging West. 

 

Kikut earned his BFA from the University of Colorado and my MFA from the University of Montana.  He has taught at the college level for over 30 years at Highlands University of New Mexico, University of Texas El Paso, and most recently the University of Wyoming where he taught for 17 years.  His work can be found in the public collections of, Nevada Museum of Art, Eiteljorg Museum, Art Museum of Missoula, and the Nicolaysen Museum among others.