Matt Kenyon: CoolHunting 25

Stamps professor Matt Kenyon has been chosen as part of the inaugural class of honorees for the CoolHunting 25 program, created to celebrate individuals from the global creative community who are driving the world forward with innovative thinking and initiatives. 

“The first annual CH25 program has been an inspiring experience and expanded our view on what is possible for our partners, panelists and members of the Cool Hunting editorial team,” said Josh Rubin, co-founder and editor in chief, Cool Hunting. ​“We were amazed by the work that is being done and proud that Cool Hunting is the medium showcasing these brilliant individuals that are driving the future forward.”

Between a Lowe’s and Home Depot on a stretch of highway littered with drive-thrus and big-box behemoths in Ann Arbor, Michigan’s outskirts, artist Matt Kenyon’s warehouse studio couldn’t be more poetically positioned. He’s spent his career exploring the effects of large conglomerate culture. In his workspace, which he describes as a ​“land of misfit toys,” the multi-disciplinarian employs sculpture and software to design pieces he hopes transform the everyday so that viewers see things with new eyes. That has meant everything from living in Wal-Mart for 24 continuous hours for ​“Walmartathon,” a piece made entirely using items purchased that day, to micro-printing names of Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion to make up lines on legal paper in ​“The Notepad.”

Matt Kenyon: Fusing art & technology to disrupt concepts of corporate America