BIO
Ken Fury (Kenneth Marez Jr.) works in multiple mediums, including painting, jewelry, music, dance, poetry, photography, and filmmaking. Fury lives in New York City and grew up in Pueblo, Colorado, and is of Nuevomexicano and Indigenous Genízaro descent from southern Colorado and New Mexico. His work explores the polarities of existence–creation and destruction–and the relationship between humans and nature. His art expands on multi-dimensional figurations, abstractions, and spaces derived from his dreams, subconscious, and life experiences. Love, mortality, transformation, eroticism, spirituality, and the ongoing effects of colonization permeate Fury’s body of work. Ken comments: “My art is part of one expanding environment that stimulates all the senses while also relying on intuition to create spontaneous works that attempt to pierce the core of emotion and spirit.”
Ken started painting at a young age, influenced by his parents, who are both artists. His paintings express the connection of emotions, movement, and energy using vibrant colors that reveal otherworldly scenes, landscapes, symbolism, and transformative characters that tie into his cultural heritage. His handmade jewelry extends his painted images into sculptural form, using traditional metalsmithing techniques. Initially a self-taught jeweler, Ken received training at Studio Jewelers Ltd. in Manhattan. His jewelry has been featured in fashion publications, sold in boutiques, and exhibited along with his paintings in art galleries and museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Ken started teaching himself how to break (breakdance) at eleven years old, and by the age of sixteen, he had won all the significant Breaking events in Colorado and competed in nearby states. After high school, Ken moved to New York City, where the hip-hop theater company Full Circle Productions had invited him to receive mentorship and training; he subsequently joined the company and performed in their off-Broadway and touring shows. He also performed with the legendary street dance crew, The NYC Float Committee, whose members taught him original footwork styles from the 1970s. He also learned from the innovative dance crew Incredible Breakers. With solid fundamentals, creativity, and decades of training, he developed his signature style and moves that have won him championships in over 30 of the top breaking competitions worldwide both as a soloist and as a member of the world-renowned crew Supreme Beingz from Queens. He has judged and taught masterclasses at many of the most influential dance events, and he has been featured in commercials, independent films, and the Netflix series The Get Down. Ken shares his multidisciplinary knowledge through his Breaking Institute programs. He has taught at schools and universities, including NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in the Experimental Theater Wing and the Seoul Institute of the Arts, and he has traveled to Zimbabwe and Indonesia as a Cultural Ambassador with the U.S. Department of State's Next Level and American Voices programs.
In 2010, inspired to combine his poetry, the themes and images of his paintings, and dance, Ken began experimenting with electronic instruments, including drum machines, synthesizers, and theremin, as well as bass and guitar. He composed and performed all of the music on the albums Flowers Fall Asleep (2012), Moonlight Bloom (2013), The Cry of Nature's Birth (2016), Rain over Clouds (2020), and Plains of Inferno (2023), all released on his Inerus Music label. Ken Fury's atmospheric soundscapes explore surreal worlds linked to the past and future that weave in and out of life on Earth. His song lyrics combine romantic, sci-fi, and futuristic themes. He's performed at music venues in New York City and on radio stations, including WFMU. The short films he directs present his music's theatrical nature in visual form. These films have been selected for screening and received awards at film festivals worldwide, including the American Indian Film Festival and Portland Film Festival. In 2022, Ken was nominated for Best Rock Video at the Native American Music Awards.
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