05/31/2026
Meet the creative director behind WKBAY? and one of the featured artists, Kevin!
Kevin Shinelikar Persaud is Bronx born of the Indo-Caribbean diaspora. His parents are from Guyana, the sugarcane first nation. Coming from a long line of matriarchs that communed with the spirits in whispers and incense, prayer and intention, dreams and fortunes; his existence is political. His guides may say he sees the color and light radiating in everyone.
His artistic practice is protest. Although classically trained in San Francisco and honing his skill in Denver, Persaud creates pieces that are ephemeral. Pieces that are fragile and won't last using non-traditional substrates. If handled incorrectly they may break or rip, or give you splinters and hurt you. Taking abstract ideas and making tangible, tactile works is a very intentional meditation on the struggles of communication.
WHAT KINDA BROWN ARE YOU is a study on true self and what that means in a US society. A society formed as symptom to colonial ideals and misguided intention. Gnarled, contorted to simple types and classification that haunt like ghosts passed and forgotten. How can an artist truly know themselves unless they shuffled off their responsibility. Responsibility as forethought to uphold misjudges and smudged mirrors. Shackled by principles unspoken, but whispered heavy with sigh.
“I am responsible for everything … except for my very responsibility, for I am not the foundation of my being.” - Jean Paul Sartre
WHAT KINDA BROWN ARE YOU is the unmasking. It is the freedom so heavily hung from our necks. Allowing artists to gauge and self reflect prioriti- Create, ingest, to grant air to the small child who wandered before foundations were laid. It is an act of remembrance and celebration of evolutions of self. In jest, how can I create without my self? The self created by other. The projection over the mask.
June 5th 5pm at COATI
June 13th 4:30pm at Ephemera Highlands
