K.A. Colorado (Kenneth Auther Colorado, born 5 April 1946), is an American-Canadian visual artist, painter, and sculptor best known for his representational work depicting climate change, deep cold, and the environment. He was the artist-in-residence for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and is the creator of the Ice Core Sculpture Series depicting polar scientific studies, material, and DNA from around the world.
Colorado co-founded the first International Snow and Ice Sculpture Competition and Winter Festival in Perm, Russia, which brought Western and Russian artists together and opened Perm, Russia to American artists and visitors for the first time
Artwork and achievements
Permanent collections
Colorado creates and performs artwork that depicts climate change, environment, and the Arctic and Antarctic regions. His sculptures and paintings have been acquired by artistic, scientific, and educational organizations internationally, and are in the permanent collections of the following institutions:
University of Portland (UP, Oregon) – Ice Core Series: Paintings depicting ice cores on Arctic terrain. University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC, Canada) – A 60-Second Time-Lapse of the World massive paintings installation depicting vanishing icebergs, three masterpieces Iceberg Paintings, two Iceberg Sculptures, Confluence of Rivers steel pyramid, and On Thin Ice wall sculpture. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, U.S.) – Ice Core Sculptures portraying ocean health and climate change, completed by the artist for permanent exhibition for the National Marine Sanctuaries National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle Campus – Masterpiece Iceberg Paintings National University of Tierra del Fuego (Universidad Nacional de Tierra del Fuego, UNTDF, South America) – Ice Core Sculptures and Frost-Byte Series King George Secondary School (Vancouver School Board, British Columbia, Canada) – On Thin Ice wall sculpture reflecting the perceived beauty of ice and referencing its potential loss due to climate change. Lewis and Clark College Law Library (Portland, Oregon) – Othello’s Gribskov’s Run, part of a series of paintings featuring dogs on icebergs. Hallie Ford Museum of Art (Willamette University, Salem, Oregon) – Ice Core Painting Vancouver Maritime Museum (British Columbia, Canada) – On Thin Ice wall sculpture incorporating historical archival information about the Arctic and the Northwest Passage
International snow sculpture
Colorado is one of the two founders of the first International Snow and Ice Sculpture Competition and Winter Festival in Perm, Russia. City leaders in the Perm Region of Russia credit Colorado with establishing, organizing, and launching this annual competition that opened the city and brought in international participants and visitors. Colorado was the first American to establish, compete, and judge in a snow and ice sculpture competition in Perm, and the first to organize and invite participants from throughout the globe. He co-founded the competition with Russian artist Yuri Lapshin, and formed the Russian Open Snow and Ice Sculpture Championship, which became a traditional and popular Perm festival. First held in 1995, the International Festival "Snow, Ice, and Fire" is an exhibition of ice and snow sculptures performed by sculptors from around the world. The annual festival has evolved throughout the years, with artists from many countries participating in works of sculpture, paintings, graphics, objects, and photographs, and remains a significant event for the city, initially made possible by Colorado.
Series, exhibitions, and installations
In 2003, Colorado began a major series of Iceberg Paintings that portrayed icebergs below and above the waterline, with light reflecting and refracting, that caught the attention of Dr. Jorge Rabassa, the noted geologist and glaciologist, who invited Colorado to the Arctic Scientific Research Library at CADIC-CONICET CADIC in Ushuaia, Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, to study icebergs and the changing conditions in the Antarctic.
Colorado was the sole artist invited among noted climatologists and scientists to present at the International Conference on Hydrometeorological Security held in Moscow, Russia in September 2006.
In 2008, Colorado began his proprietary series of Ice Core Sculptures, a group of over 100 three-dimensional artworks portraying scientific ice cores such as those used by scientists to analyze historical environmental data and incorporating written script, DNA, or artifacts from scientists and Polar regions.