20 Years in the Making

Banner Image: Detail of printed photograph by Kevin Horn on view at Afterhours Gallery. Photos courtesy of Isabel Betsill.

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Fresh. Youthful. Playful. Energetic. Chromatic. Cinematic. In six words, this is the life, artistic vision, and creative career of Kevin Horn. 

Kevin Horn is an LA-based cinematographer and photographer with more than 15 years of experience working across narrative and commercial film. He has shot for brands such as Vans, WKND, Levis, Target, and Fiat. He is also the founder of the independent skateboarding magazine, Anomaly, which has released 3 issues. But before his commercial success, before his move to LA, Horn was a kid in Saint Paul with a skateboard, a camera, and a dream. 

It was down the iconic green stairs, below Afterhours Skateshop off Snelling avenue in Saint Paul, that I became acquainted with this skateboard loving, camera wielding, big dreaming kid. 

 

Top image: Installation view of Retrospective: 20 Years of Photography by Kevin Horn at After Hours Gallery. Bottom image: Detail of 4x6 point-and-shoot prints. Photos courtesy of Isabel Betsill.

Walking around the gallery with co-founder Jamie, looking at bulletin boards full of 4x6 point-and-shoot prints, reading bucket lists, and playing with handheld View-Masters, I was transported back to the mid-2000s and my own teenage angst years: the years when the world felt big but I felt bigger.

Who would we be without those precious, formative high school years? When you’re armed with the newfound freedom granted by having a car, a job, a curfew you never make it home on time for, and your ride-or-die best friends by your side? 

We carry this version of ourselves with us into adulthood. Through jobs, cross-country moves, relationship turbulence, financial strains, climate catastrophes and pandemics, many of us lose touch with the part of ourselves that felt infinite. But that’s the beauty and magic of art. Making it and viewing it requires a level of vulnerability and honesty with ourselves demanded by few other mediums. It keeps us rooted in our authentic selves.

Photography in particular captures a certain “truth”. Every photo is like a breadcrumb in a trail of evidence of “I was here” “we were here” “we did that”. 

This retrospective show walks you through 20 years of Kevin Horn, through his lens, chronologically. From the aforementioned point-and-shoot skatepark days to endeavors in fine art with their series The 5 o’clock Club, to independent photo journalism with his magazine, Anomaly. 

 

Top image: Installation view of Retrospective: 20 Years of Photography by Kevin Horn at After Hours Gallery. Bottom image: Stand with Anomaly magazine at Afterhours Gallery. Photos courtesy of Isabel Betsill.

The show is playful, nostalgic and evident of an artist who is self-made. The work isn’t overly presented. Framing is minimal, with many pieces installed with push pins. Instead of a pedestal, there’s Horn’s childhood bedside table plastered in skateboard brand stickers. There’s an old-school slide projector, handheld view masters, and stereoscopic 3-D images with the iconic red and blue 3D glasses for viewing. 

Afterhours Gallery is the perfect gallery for this retrospective. Since opening in the basement below Afterhours Skateshop last June, co-founders Jamie Owens and Ben Hering have been working to build something which has beautifully captured the attention of artists and skate enthusiasts alike. 

The artists Afterhours gallery is bringing in and the vibe they’re creating fills this perfect gap in the twin cities art scene. What Owens and Hering have created is a gallery that caters to the young, alternative, boundary-pushing artists and patrons alike. This Kevin Horn retrospective perfectly encapsulates the vision of the gallery to merge the worlds of art and skateboarding. Fans of either will have plenty to take away from this show. 

“Retrospective” by Kevin Horn is on view at Afterhours gallery through August 8th. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11 am- 7pm and Sunday and Monday 11 am to 5 pm.◼︎ 

Retrospective: 20 Years of Photography by Kevin Horn at After Hours Gallery, 251 Snelling Ave S, Saint Paul, MN 55105, is on view up through August 8th. To see more work by Kevin Horn, check out his website kevinhornography.com and follow him on Instagram at @kevin_horn.