Kalevi Kempas was born in Rauma in 1947. He studied at the Turku Art Association School of Drawing from 1975 to 1976 and at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and the Cité International des Arts in Paris in 1979.
Prolific and proficient in watercolours, gouaches, acrylics and lithographs, Kempas has mainly centred his career around commissions, a restrictive creative practice he understands and conceives as a dialogue where he listens and responds to with careful empathy and understanding.
Some of his solo exhibitions include: Rauma Art Museum (1977, 1980 and 1986), Wäinö Aalto Museum (1980 and 1986) and the Hämeenlinna Art Museum (with Kimmo Pyykö,1986). His works can be found in the Finnish State collections, Rauma Art Museum, Pori Art Museum, Tampere Museum of Contemporary Art, Wäinö Aaltonen Museum, Hämeenlinna Art Museum and Emil Cedercreutz Museum, among others.
Conscious his art is continuously evolving form, he turned the lower floor of his house – built over a potato field by his parents in 1967 – into the Kempas Gallery, which is always open for visits on appointment.
Kempas was awarded the Western Finland Art Medal in 1980 and the Trade Union of Education in Finland (OAJ) Gold Culture Medal in 1987.
