Carel Pieter Brest van Kempen
With over 30 years as an artist, naturalist and author, Carel Brest van Kempen’s artistic mission has always been to deepen awareness of the natural world and how it functions. His work has been exhibited worldwide in such venues as The Smithsonian, The American Museum of Natural History, The British Museum and The National Museum of Taiwan. He was named one of 100 “Most Honored Artists of Utah” (2002) and one of 14 “Master Signature Members” of the Society of Animal Artists (2008), who have awarded him their highest honor, the Award of Excellence, seven times. Artists for Conservation awarded him their Medal of Excellence in 2009. He has illustrated over a dozen books, including Dinosaurs of Utah (1998), Biology of the Gila Monsters and Beaded Lizards (2005), Biology of the Boas and Pythons (2007), Urban Herpetology (2008), and Conservation of Mesoamerican Amphibians and Reptiles (2010) and authored the popular coffee-table book, Rigor Vitae: Life Unyielding (2006). In addition to painting, he actively writes and blogs about natural history and conservation themes and serves on the board of Science Art-Nature, a Stanford-based non-profit devoted to “raising the prominence of Science Art and the benefits of combining the accuracy of science with the evocative power of art.”
His current solo exhibition, “Biodiversity in the Art of Carel Pieter Brest van Kempen,” is currently touring museums across the United States.