Steven Kenny was born in 1962 and raised in Peekskill, New York. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The Rhode Island School of Design and was chosen to spend his last year of art school studying independently in Rome as part of the European Honors Program. This direct exposure to European art, especially the early Renaissance works of the Italian, Dutch and Flemish schools, had a significant effect on his style of painting. 

First settling in New York City, Steven quickly became a highly successful commercial illustrator; his clients included Sony Music, Time Magazine, AT&T, United Airlines, Celestial Seasonings Teas and Microsoft. His illustrations repeatedly received awards from the Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts Magazine, and the Art Directors’ Club of New York.  During this time he also painted at night, developing his skills as a fine artist.

 In 1997, Steven moved to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. From that time forward, Steven has devoted his attention to his fine art career. He is now represented by galleries in Atlanta, Santa Fe and West Hollywood, in addition to regularly exhibiting his work in Denmark, the Netherlands and France. In 2004 he was one of three artists chosen to receive a $15,000 grant from the Franz and Virginia Bader Fund. Other awards include fellowships from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. His paintings are regularly featured in annual publications such as Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Dreamscape: The Best of Imaginary Realism and most recently Metamorphosis: 50 Contemporary Surreal, Fantastic and Visionary Artists.

 In describing his work, Steven says, “Our global society is ever more reliant on superficial psychological, physical, spiritual, social and cultural environments. In doing so we seek a sense of stability, inner balance and peace while drowning out the anxiety of our increasingly technological existence. My work is an exploration of the multi-faceted relationship we have with our collective and individual souls. For subject matter I focus almost exclusively on humans and birds in varying combinations. For me – as they have in religion, myth, and art for millennia – birds represent both the untamable natural world we inhabit and the vast spiritual and psychological wilderness within each of us. Through the depiction of avian symbolism and the figure, I create images that allude to the ever-present human desire for transcendence. The manner with which my figures interact with their natural environments is a direct reflection of the successes and failures modern man experiences on a daily basis. The quality of our internal lives is manifest in the physical world around us. The future health of Earth’s biosphere will depend on our ability to intimately nurture our inmost hearts.”