Tony Kew

Tony Kew

Tony Kew - Biography

Tony Kew immigrated to Canada in 1967 from Johannesburg, South Africa when he was thirty years old. During his career in commercial art in Toronto and New York, he received over thirty awards of merit and creativity. He began painting seriously in 1974. Ten years later, Kew created the 1983 Canada Post Stamp featuring Josiah Henson, a prominent historical figure who aided the transport of slaves from the southern United States into Ontario through the Underground Railroad. He also did a portrait for Jocelyn Lovell, a prominent Canadian cyclist who became a quadriplegic in the 1980s after he was run over by a dump truck. Prior to moving to Aurora, Mr. Kew spent more than 20 years painting in Ireland. While in in Ireland, one of his paintings was featured in a two-minute clip airing before the national news program every night.

Tony Kew's style is characterized by precise and detailed brush strokes. He often portrays people and over time many of his subjects were public and sports figures. Kew's technique of presenting very real looking objects and characters in unusual, imaginative combinations hints at an intuitive disclosure of the relations of things which exist slightly beyond normal appearances. His paintings are imbued with a feeling of stillness and calm, yet are often composed of unexpected elements which bespeak an elusive hyper-reality.