Kevin Atherton

Epithet: Artist

Biography: Museum exhibitor 2001

Born in the Isle of Man in 1950 and educated at the Douglas School of Art from 1968 to 1969, and at the Fine Art Department of Leeds Polytechnic from 1969 to 1972, Kevin Atherton later completed a PhD in the Visual Culture Faculty at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin.

Before moving to Ireland, Kevin Atherton lived and worked in London for twenty-five years teaching part-time at The Slade School of Fine Art (UCL), the Royal College of Art and Middlesex Polytechnic.

Most notably he was the Head of Department of Alternative Media at Chelsea College of Art. Arriving in Dublin in 1999 Atherton, as the inaugural Head of the Fine Art Media Department at the National College of Art and Design, he wrote the BA Fine Art Media pathway and the ground-breaking Virtual Realities MA course.

He has exhibited and performed throughout the world including at the Museum of Modern Art San Francisco, The Museum of Modern Art Vienna and at Tate Britain. His two-screen video installation In Two Minds (1978-2014) is in the collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art Dublin.

His artwork Platforms Piece, comprising three bronze sculptures of commuters on the platforms of Brixton Railway Station, was given listed status by Historic England. It was commissioned by British Rail in 1986, and two of the figures are believed to be the first public sculptural representations of black British people in the UK.

Occupation / profession: Artist

Gender: Male

Date of birth: 1950

Place of birth: Douglas, Isle of Man

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