About

Ken Gerleve is an interdisciplinary artist who uses narrative and image to tell stories, which are often darkly humorous. His artwork juxtaposes the traditional elements of the Gothic with contemporary culture. This can take the form of an illustrated book of original verse narrative, animation, puppet building and performance, or installation. He often uses Scherenschnitte, or paper-cutting, and dimensional book structures, like Tunnel and Carousel books, to create sculptural scenes reminiscent of the silhouette animations of Lotte Reiniger.

Ken earned an MFA in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts from Columbia College Chicago. He is the studio assistant for visual artist and author Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler’s Wife) and her husband cartoonist and author Eddie Campbell (From Hell). Ken has also worked extensively both in planning and designing Rags to Witches, a family-oriented Halloween event held at the Ragdale Foundation each October. Ken is a board member of Artists Book House, a new nonprofit arts organization dedicated to the arts and crafts of bookmaking, writing and papermaking.