13 Facts About Kermit Oliver

Kermit Oliver was born on 1943 and is an American painter who studied and worked in Houston before moving to Waco, Texas.

Kermit Oliver was named the 2017 Texas State Two-Dimensional Artist by the Texas Commission on the Arts.

Kermit Oliver was born in Refugio, Texas, where his father worked as a cowboy on a cattle ranch.

Kermit Oliver married fellow art student, Katie Washington, in 1962.

In 1968 Kermit Oliver began teaching art at Texas Southern University, and he taught at the Art League of Houston during this time; however, he soon decided not to pursue teaching as a career.

For most of his life, Kermit Oliver worked as both an artist and a full-time mail sorter for the US Postal Service, initially in Houston and then for thirty years after moving to Waco, Texas in 1984.

Kermit Oliver believed that a steady income was the best way to support his family while allowing him the freedom to pursue art on his own terms.

Kermit Oliver retired from the postal service in 2013 and continued working as an artist.

Kermit Oliver was the first African-American artist in Houston to be represented by a major commercial gallery.

Kermit Oliver's work was exhibited in numerous solo and group shows and has been included in a number of museum collections.

Kermit Oliver is known for his celebrated work as a designer of scarves for Hermes, the French fashion house.

Kermit Oliver is the only American artist to create designs for Hermes.

Kermit Oliver's work is held in the collection of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.