Born in 1970, Karl Kanai is a native of Detroit, Michigan. In 2002, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration, with honors, from Detroit’s College for Creative Studies. Working in a wide range of styles, with oil and acrylic paints as well as digital media, Karl’s passion is for pop surrealism.
Several of Karl’s works have won both local and national awards. Among those is Karl’s painting “Leopards” which, in 2002, won the Compuware World Headquarters Art Competition. The original now hangs in the company’s Detroit office. Images from the painting have been used as the theme decorating the signage for the sixth level of the company’s parking structure in downtown Detroit.
In 2003, Karl’s painting “National Portfolio Day” was chosen as the winning design promoting the nation-wide event of the same title. The original painting is now on permanent display in downtown Detroit in the Admissions Office at the College for Creative Studies.
Karl found a different kind of reward from his painting “Long Day At The Zoo” — inspired by a day-trip he took to the Detroit Zoo in 2003. Two years later, a woman contacted him about buying the original. She said that she fell in love with it. He fell in love with her, and in 2007 they were married. In September 2009, they welcomed into the world their first child...a baby girl named Sasha.