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Tim Kent’s New Show Is About Rest But He Can’t Stop Working

Ahead of "Sojourn" at Hollis Taggart, the artist admitted that he remains skeptical of his own artistic success and described a career built more on persistence than any singular breakthrough moment.

Before he started painting full-time, Brooklyn-based artist Tim Kent spent six years playing bass for The Giraffes, one of New York’s most unhinged early-2000s rock bands, playing shows before the Strokes and the whole rock revival that followed “We were four tough kids from New York, and we were genuinely good. No rules. Small rooms, 100 people, cranked to 20,000 decibels. People still say the craziest show they’ve ever seen was a Giraffes show,” he told Observer shortly before the opening of his new solo exhibition, “Sojourn,” which opened this month at Hollis Taggart’s Chelsea location. These days, the hype is around his quietly moody paintings. (He has works in public and private collections, including those of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Beijing; Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson’s 21c Museum in Louisville; and the Rockwell Museum in Corning, New York.) In the middle of one of the city’s busiest art weeks, artists, designers, critics and collectors packed the gallery to see his new works focused on rest—a paradoxical subject, perhaps, for a former rocker. What follows is our conversation, lightly edited.

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When did you first realize painting was going to be your life?

Everybody with a little bit of talent has to figure out whether they’re going to pursue it. I used drawing and painting as a way of dealing with all the traveling I did moving from city to city, as a kid with my mother. I grew up with a single mom; she was busy and I understood that. In my early twenties, I was working odd jobs, painting and trying to sell pictures on weekends. I had to decide: was I going to give it a real shot? When people started actually buying them, I decided to try painting full-time. Getting into the gallery system anywhere is hard, but living in New York gives a young artist the chance to start exhibiting and give whatever talent you have room to grow. I basically thought, if I can keep this going as long as possible, I’m lucky.

"Sojourn" Artist: Tim Kent Venue: Hollis Taggart Chelsea Address: 521 W 26th St, New York, NY Through: October 17, 2026

Do you remember the first piece you ever sold?

A relative commissioned it. It was an old blues player meeting the devil. I got about $100 for it. I remember thinking, my God, I’m selling! But selling to a relative isn’t the same as selling to a stranger. Part of the fun of making paintings now is figuring out who’s actually being honest with their checkbook. Either someone buys it because they love it, or they don’t buy it at all. Now, I think about that with long term collectors, too. Plenty of great paintings never sell and only get appreciated later. That tells you something, though not everything.

What’s the most expensive painting you’ve ever sold, and did the number mean anything to you?

I’m not telling you the number. But it means a lot, for sure. Yesterday, an Amazon guy delivered a package to the studio for someone........

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