KENNETH A. KERSLAKE - Artist and Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Founder: Printmaking Program, Department of Art, University of Florida. Born: Mount Vernon, New York, March 8, 1930. Attended Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York 1950-53 and holds BFA. (1955) and MFA. (1957) degrees from the University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois. In 1958 he moved to Gainesville, Florida with his wife Sarah Allen, most know her as Sally, and joined the faculty of the University of Florda where he initiated the first organized printmaking program the offered by the Department of Art. Sally and Ken have two children, Scott Paul and Kathrine Rachel and five grandchildren.
Principle mediums are: intaglio, photoetching, monoprints, vitreographs, drawing and painting.
In the past forty years Kerslake's works have been included in numerous competitive, invitational, and solo print exhibitions. His prints have also been circulated in what was formerly Yugoslavia by the United States State Department. In the forward to the catalog for the "USA/USSR Exchange Exhibition, Dr. Tom Dewey, Professor of Art History, University of Mississippi-Oxford mentions Kerslake as one of the five most influential printmaker-educators responsible for the growth of printmaking in the southeast in the years following World War II. The Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art mounted a major retrospective exhibition of his work which opened in September 1996. A catalog was publish in conjunction with the show.
Public collections include: the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY.; The Library of Congress, Washington DC; the National Gallery, Washington, DC; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CN.; The High Museum, Atlanta, GA.; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; SECCA., Winston-Salem, NC.; Krannert Gallery of Art, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL.; The Cummer Museum of Art, Jacksonville, FL.; Gilkey Center for the Graphic Arts, The Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Johnson Wax Collection, Racine, Wis.; and the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA. among others. Three of his works are on permanent display in the State House of Representatives and another at the Marjorie Stoneman Building, Tallahassee, FL. Art in Public Places collection, State of Hawaii. Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida accepted a gift of 200 works and studies (1955 - 1990) by Kenneth A. Kerslake , announcement featured in the September 1992, Monthly Bulletin; Cancer Center, UF - Sarah's Garden; Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art. 31 early works of art on paper accepted - August 1993; Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art; "And We Four Talked", Oil on Paper, Purchased.
Kerslake has been invited to serve as artist in residence, lecturer, and juror at many universities and art centers throughout the country including the University of Alaska, Fairbanks; the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Illinois, Champaign; the University of Texas-Austin, the Honolulu Printmakers Annual Exhibition and the 1992 Pacific States National Print Exhibition, University of Hawaii-Hilo. More recently he presented lectures/workshops at the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa (1996), East Carolina University (1997) and an exhibition of his paintings was presented at the Vero Beach Art Center in May 1997. In addition, he has taught at Penland School, Penland, NC., Arrowmont Schools of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN and as invited faculty on the University of Georgia's ten week Summer Studies Abroad Program in Cortona, Italy.
He served as President of the Southern Graphics Council (1990 to 1992). SGC is an organization of approximately 800 members covering the southern states. The impact of this organization's annual conference is currently attracting members from across the United States, Canada, England and other countries. He is a former member of the SGC Executive Board and Editor of the Newsletter 1992 - 97).
Honors and awards include: The Joseph Pennell Fund Selection Committee Purchase Award, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.; Associate American Artists Edition Award, (AAA Gallery, NYC.); Best of Show Award, "Intag One", University of California at Northridge; Nettie Marie Jones Fellowship; Nominee for Awards in the Visual Arts (AVA), SECCA; Distinguished Faculty Award, Florida Blue Key, UF. 1979; Teacher of the Year for the College of Fine Arts, 1986-87 and a Teacher Implimentation Program (TIP) Award 1993.
Biographies: Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the South and Southwest, Marquis Who's Who Inc.; Who's Who in American Art, Cattell Press; as well as several biographies published by the International Biographical Center, Cambridge, England.