Cooper Hewitt says...
Ron Kent (American, b. 1931) is one of the American pioneers of studio wood turning. He began turning wood in his forties when he received a toy lathe as a Christmas present. His first piece was made from a piece of driftwood found on the beach and formed with a sharpened screwdriver. After producing primarily bottle and egg forms, Kent discovered the ultimate expression of his talent in bowls made from Hawaiian Norfolk pine. The unique spalting and knots of the Norfolk pine are on extraordinary display in Kent’s translucent bowls, an effect he enhances through the process of repeatedly oiling and sanding the wood.
Kent was born in Chicago and earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1957. Before deciding to focus full-time on his craft, Kent was a stock broker and investor, continuing in the latter field. He has also been an adult education teacher, a call-in radio talk show host on personal finance and investment and conducted seminars in this field and on creativity.
His 2017 CV shows the following:
2010 - Advisory Council (Wood), Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle
2009 - Board of Directors, Friends of Hawaii State Art Museum
2000 - 2002 Honorary Board, James Renwick Alliance, District of Columbia
2011 Oral History, Smithsonian Archives of American Art
2011 Video/Internet interview; ARTV.at (Vienna, Austria)
His work is in:
The Louvre (Musée des Arts Decoratifs), Paris
det Danske Kunstindustrimusee, Copenhagen Hawke’s Bay Cultural Trust, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The White House Permanent Collection (Clinton Library)
Smithsonian Institution:S.A.A.M. (Renwick Gallery), Washington, D.C.
Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Yale University Art Gallery
Newark Museum, New Jersey
and numerous other museums
