After graduating from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Tufts University in 1991, Kent Damon Jr (aka Kyle) landed representation at Ambassador gallery in SoHo, NYC. He exhibited his sculptures and painted assemblages there until the owners retired a decade later, during and after which time he exhibited nationwide at galleries including the Toomey-Tourell Gallery in San Francisco, CA, the Caribbean Gallery in Key West, FL, the Circuit Gallery in Norfolk, Virginia, the Ashua-Irving Gallery in Boston, MA, the Kobalt Gallery in Provincetown, MA and at the Limner Gallery in New York City. 

 

In between his shows — which often featured found objects and mixed media constructions— KD designed and built custom wood and metal furniture. His art studio, consequently, resembled part auto-body shop, part woodworking shop. He had an apprentice too: his dad, Kent Senior, a marathoner-turned-sailor who was eager to learn the carpentry skills necessary to remodel his 48' boat aptly named “The Nomad" (Damon backwards). 

 

Meanwhile, KD Junior tapped his father for advice of his own on marathoning. Junior was equally untrained (as a runner, that is). So, Kent Junior and Senior traded notes on the track and in the studio. After some blood on the toes and table-saw, not only was "The Nomad" a Temple of Teak, but Junior qualified for the Boston Marathon, became a USA Triathlon All-American, and after more than a dozen marathons and a hundred triathlons, won the 2012 Hunter Mountain Iron Distance Triathlon in New York. 

 

As a seasoned artist and athlete, KD Jr found a creative juncture for his two passions: designing, welding and painting custom steel bikes for elite cyclists, novices, and training partners at the Hot Tubes shop in Shirley, MA. He decided to name the company Nomad Bikes after his namesake and the passions they shared. His varied background(s) as a fine woodworker, painter, mixed media sculptor, and bike racer has produced some truly imaginative bikes. When Covid 19 closed his facility, he returned to his art studio roots. Today, he races behind his two sons, Jackson and Miles and alongside his wife, Lori, each on Nomads of their own. They divide their time between the New England Seacoast and the Southwest desert, at the hallowed intersection of art roots and bike routes.