Kempton Dexter

Individual


Roles

Artist, Musician, Writer

Roles at grunt

Founder (1984)

Biography

Kempton Dexter was born in Digby, Nova Scotia. He studied art and biology at Acadia University where he had his first solo painting exhibition in 1973. In Toronto from 1977-82, he vigorously continued painting, making sculpture, became a father, and began a five-year apprenticeship as wood patternmaker. On Vancouver Island, from 1982-83, he played and sang in dance bands, and produced and exhibited wood sculpture. In 1984, he settled in Vancouver and helped found grunt gallery. His first solo show at grunt was Ya Work, Ya Eat in 1985 and he remained active with the artist-run gallery for the next ten years. Dexter exhibited consistently at venues around Vancouver during that period, including the Burnaby Art Gallery and large environmental works at the UBC research forest in Maple Ridge. He also performed original music and created theatre. Since the mid-1990s, Dexter's artistic focus has been music, theatre, and writing. He has produced a number of albums, including his fifth collection of original songs, Springtime in Vancouver, released in 2017, and worked as a musical director for many plays, including The Kenny Rogers Experience, One More for the Road, The Lost Supper, and Jacques and Awe. His first short story collection Mrs. Ceperly's Garden and Other Plots was published in 2011 and Paris of the Pacific Northwest was published in 2021.

grunt gallery and FriesenPress, 2021

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