Kevin Maginnis was born 1955 in Menominee, Michigan. In 1977 he graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay with a degree in painting and printmaking. After graduation Maginnis moved to Chicago where, along with the continuation of his practice he began a graphic design business. In 1986 Maginnis received his first solo exhibition at the New York Academy of Sciences. In 1987 he produced what would become a series of independent shows starting with a counter-exhibition, The Non-Spiritual In Art: Abstract Painting 1985 – ????, followed in 1989 by Strange Attractors, the Spectacle of Chaos. In 1990 the artist had his first solo show in Chicago at Rezac Gallery.

In 1992 Maginnis began a long hiatus from his practice. Not until 2010, after liquidating his business, did he begin his practice again. A series of shows soon followed: first, a group show at Hyde Park Arts Center, followed by a one person show/installation at The Suburban Gallery. In 2016 Maginnis created his most ambitious independent exhibition yet, titled Spun, featuring 20 different artists “platformed” upside down inside an installation of an upside down gallery space.

For the last several years he has, in part, focused on what he perceives to be a catastrophic reckoning coming due because of what we have done to this planet. Currently he continues his practice of articulating this dread of the future at Mana Contemporary in Chicago.