Kenneth George Nack, painter, printmaker, collage and mixed media artist, muralist, and teacher, was born in Chicago on January 14, 1923. He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1941 to 1943. He served in the United States Army between 1943 and 1946 but still managed to exhibit work in the Artists of Chicago and Vicinty (ACV) annuals in 1944 and 1945; he would continue to exhibit there throughout the 1950s. In 1945, Nack's oil, West of the Near North Side, was awarded the William H. Bartels Prize. His early work was inspired by urabn environments and he created abstract interpretations of the cities where he lived, most notably Chicago. 

After his discharge from the Army, Nack returned to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he received his MFA in 1949. Following graduation he moved to Paris, where he studied with Fernand Léger. On his return to the U.S. he continued to exhibit in major shows throughout the 1950s. He traveled extensively in Mexico and Europe, maintaining summer studios in Spain and France, and ran a gallery in San Francisco before he finally settled in Santa Barbara, California. He taught at Santa Barbara City College where he was Chair of the Art Department for thirty-five years. 

Awards and recognitions:
In 1942, he won the Kuppenheimer Scholarship in the School; in 1943, the Clyde M. Carr Prize at the 47th annual exhibition with the ACV; in 1947, an award at the Pepsi-Cola Fourth Annual Exhibition, New York (Paintings of the Year), and a prize at the Old Northwest Territory Art Exhibition held at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. In 1950, he was featured in LIFE magazine as one of the nineteen best young American painters, followed by an exhibition of the paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Selected exhibitions:
1947, 1953: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts annual exhibitions 
1948: Nack and Harold Zussin, two-person show, Art Institute of Chicago
1949 - 1953: ACV annual exhibitions
1949, 1950: Contemporary American Painting annual exhibition, Whitney Museum, NY
1950, 1955: Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, IL
1954: "Younger American Painters," Guggenheim Museum, NY
1961: Nack and Donald Yacoe, Thibaut Gallery, New York
2003: Colorado Center for Arts and Humanities, Arvada, CO
2006: "Thomas Kapsalis and Kenneth Nack: Parallels and Tangents," Betty Ryner Gallery, Art Institute of Chicago
2018: "Ken Nack/Michael Arntz: Santa Barbara, 1960s - 1980s," The Landing gallery, Los Angeles (posthumous)

Kenneth Nack died in Santa Barbara, California on December 12, 2009.