Artist Database

Kevin Atkinson was a South African artist and educator born in Cape Town in 1939. He studied at the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art where he obtained a BA in Fine Art in 1978. For 30 years he taught at his alma mater, occupying a light and airy studio on the upper floor. After his retirement in 1996, Atkinson created an underground studio for himself, which he named ‘Plato’s Cave’ after the allegorical cave described in Plato’s The Republic. Though well known as a printmaker and painter, throughout his career Atkinson was experimental in both his medium and style – embracing conceptual art, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and others. He is often described as being ‘before his time' and was, therefore, thought of as controversial and enigmatic. Atkinson exhibited widely throughout his lifetime in solo and group shows both locally and internationally. In the 70s and 80s, he also received a number of commissions for public murals and light installations. Before his death in 2007, Atkinson set up a Trust to preserve his Plato’s Cave studio as a place to make his art accessible to students, curators, and the public.