With the sculptures, Irving achieves a consistent and often astonishing level of virtuosity. Seven Pack—Memorial Edition, August, 2014 (RIP), for instance, includes a row of Sprite soda bottles realized in porcelain and embedded in a ceramic quagmire: a seemingly impossible feat of craftsmanship. Unlike the realistic ceramic versions of everyday objects that one finds in kitsch galleries and gift shops, however, Irving’s efforts are not merely in the service of technical bravado or novel effects. His works tell engaging stories and address important political issues. Kahlil Robert Irving is a multimedia artist, currently living and working in Saint Louis, Missouri. Irving completed his BFA in art history and ceramics at the Kansas City Art Institute. In May of 2017, Irving earned his Master of Fine Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. At Washington University in St. Louis Irving was a Chancellor’s Graduate Fellow. Recently, Irving was nominated and awarded the 2017 Alice C. Cole Fellowship from the studio art department at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Currently Irving is Artist-in-residence and Visiting Professor at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.
His work is in the collections of the Riga Porcelain Museum, in Riga, Latvia; Foundation for Contemporary Ceramic Art in Kecskemet, Hungary; The Ken Ferguson Teaching Collection at the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri; The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson Community College in Overland Park, Kansas.