Miramonte Art Teacher Exhibits Sculpture at The de Young Open 2023

    Gavin Kermode loved drawing as a child, but when he took a 3-D art class his sophomore year at Miramonte High School, he found that the third dimension was his calling. “It was sculpture, metal, casting pottery, and it just had a different energy to it,” said Kermode. Twenty-five years later, Kermode is teaching that very same class at his alma mater.
    Today, Kermode is not only a beloved teacher and the chair of the visual and performing arts department at Miramonte, but he is also a working artist. His sculpture, Alluring Brim, is currently on display at The de Young Open 2023, an exhibition featuring the work of Bay Area artists.

You were a football star at Miramonte in 1997. After high school, you decided to go to the California College of the Arts instead of a more traditional school. Was that a difficult decision?
    Not really. I’ve always loved art and sports. When I decided to go to art college instead of pursuing sports, everything just flooded to the front. It felt wonderful.

Did you ever expect to return to your alma mater to teach the very same class that first inspired you?
    It’s been almost 20 years now. My old art teacher got brain cancer right as I was graduating from college and he was the one who first had the idea of me taking over his job. It was my first job after graduating from college. Things happened quickly because of circumstances, but I felt ready to step into those shoes because I knew the program and I felt confident in my skill set.

On to the big news! Your sculpture was selected to be displayed at The de Young Open 2023. What was the selection process like?
    They opened the process up to residents of nine Bay Area counties. Entrants could only submit one image and a title. The judges looked at the images without any background information on the artists. Over 7,700 artists submitted their work and only 883 were chosen.

How does it feel to see your work on display at the de Young?
    It’s very exciting to be a part of a world-class museum like the de Young. The exhibition has a wide range of art and it’s very well curated.

What does your family – your wife Natalia, and children, Reese (age 9), Cora (age 5) and Hunter (age 3) – think about seeing your work in the museum?
    They think it’s awesome. They’re always around art because that’s what we do at our house and my studio and they know Dad is an artist, so it’s part of their lives. My nine-year-old is actually old enough to be aware of how special it is and that’s really cool.

Tell us about the selected sculpture?
    It’s probably the most recent one I completed. I’ve always been interested in the human form. This sculpture is very geometric, breaking the form down into elegant, sharp lines and with clothing like the hat and the scarf. It also touches on the idea of what people wear and how that brings a whole other dialog to how you see someone or how you interact with them.

What does the title Alluring Brim mean?
    I have always found edges engaging and fascinating – the fringe of a hat, the verge of lips, the contours of a hairline, neckline or shoulder. I like to think that Alluring Brim invites viewers to delight in the margins or be seduced by the boundaries of the human form.

What’s inspiring you now?
    One of the fun things about being an artist is that you’re always trying out something new and challenging yourself, and seeing what comes from that. You’re always evolving. That’s something I’ve always enjoyed and that keeps me engaged.

What’s your advice for young artists?
    You have to really have a passion. If you enjoy making art, you’re going to put that time in and work and have discipline. You have to really love it because it’s not guaranteed you’re going to have a successful career. But if you like it and you feel you need to do it, then go all in.