Larry May is a Full-Time Professional Artist
Living and Working in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.
“Larry’s drive and motivation for his work is rooted deep within his love for the Appalachian region and Appalachian culture. ”
Larry May was born in 1946 on Tolers Creek, Floyd County, Kentucky. He began his career as a serious artist at the age of nineteen. He has had nearly thirty solo exhibits over the past fifty years.
Larry has exhibited at the Carnegie Arts Center on several occasions and twice at Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Other notable exhibits include one in Louisville, Kentucky, one in Bristol, Tennessee, one in Newport, Kentucky, several at the MAC in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, and several in Harlan, Kentucky. Other exhibits include another two person show titled “Women in Appalachia” at the University of Kentucky, several at the Gateway Regional Arts Center in Mount Sterling, Kentucky and several exhibits at the Grayson Gallery & Art Center, Grayson, Kentucky.
Larry was also one of the artists chosen to participate in the first Horse Mania arts event in Lexington, Kentucky with his painted horse that came in as the sixth highest price paid at auction out of seventy horses. He also participated in the 2010 horse mania event with his late wife and master Appalachian quilter, Belinda May. He and his wife Belinda also ran the Back Porch Gallery in Benham, Kentucky from 2002 to 2006.
Larry’s almost sixty-year career as an artist has seen many transformations including surrealism, realism, photo realism, found object assemblages, romantic landscapes and now abstract landscapes.
His education includes Mullins High School, Morehead State University (BA) and Eastern Kentucky University (MA). He has taught art most of his adult life including Evarts High School, Cumberland High School, Pine Mountain Settlement School, Southeast Community and Technical College all in Harlan County, Kentucky and Walton Verona High School in Boone County, Kentucky.
Larry’s drive and motivation for his work is rooted deep within his love for the Appalachian region and Appalachian culture.