Ken Grimes
(b. 1947)
ActiveCheshire, Connecticut, United States
BornNew York, New York, United States
BiographyKen Grimes uses almost exclusively a stark black-and-white palette for his art that portrays his quest for the truth about the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life and how its presence has already impacted our planet. His minimal, graphic style, sometimes resembling pixel art, is made with acrylics on Masonite or ink on paper. This flattened, simple approach distills his complex thinking about alien civilizations, crop circles, radio telescopes listening for signals from worlds beyond ours, and UFO sightings. He annotates or fills these pieces with text in block letters or with binary code, as he frequently works in series to examine episodes of unearthly contact or consider the ways that our reality is shaped by extraterrestrials.Born in 1947 in New York City, Grimes grew up in Cheshire, Connecticut, and developed an early interest in sci-fi movies, books, and shows such as Star Trek. A schizophrenia diagnosis in his twenties led him to leave college, and he had subsequent hospitalizations in the 1970s. He became especially interested in “synchronicities,” particularly relating to his name and the name of his hometown. (Some of his paintings pose questions such as, “Are there more cosmic coincidences involving the word Cheshire?”) The influences on his art range from pop culture to astronomy and reference the writing of Carl Sagan and Frank Drake.
Self-Taught Artists of the 20th Century: An American Anthology, a traveling exhibition organized by the American Folk Art Museum in 1998, helped bring his work to wider attention. For several years, he has created his art at Fellowship Place, a support center for adults living with mental illness in New Haven, Connecticut. He regularly exhibits the latest in his now decades-long exploration of other life in our universe and our place in its vast galaxies in gallery and museum shows. As he was quoted in the 2023 book published by Anthology, Evidence for Contact: Ken Grimes, “We need to know if they’ve survived nuclear wars, disease, and hunger. . . . These are basic, existential questions. If they are out there, we need to know how they are able to exist.”
Allison C. Meier, 2025
Text written as part of “Rethinking Biography,” an initiative supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).