Shelagh Keeley
20 Sep 2014 - 17 May 2015
Installation view of Shelagh Keeley, german notes / after lucretius / de rerum natura, 2013. Stadtisches Museum Abteiberg, Monchengladbach, Germany. Photo: Shelagh Keeley
SHELAGH KEELEY
Notes on Obsolescence
20 September 2014 - 17 May 2015
The Power Plant is pleased to present a commissioned project by Toronto-based artist Shelagh Keeley. Keeley will create a new wall drawing that will envelop the gallery's clerestory walls.
The Power Plant is pleased to present a commissioned project by Toronto-based artist Shelagh Keeley.
In the late 1970s, Keeley began employing drawing as both a response to and exploration of Conceptual Art where the gesture of her hand and physicality of her body were integral to her mark making. As such, Keeley’s work involves a high degree of physical effort where the concrete resistance of the wall is juxtaposed with the fluidity of her hand and the extensions of her body. By working with the limits of the wall and the constraints of its architecture, Keeley defines a confined space within which she works within. These boundaries provide the artist with a counterpoint to the openness and improvisation of her physical action. More, the architecture coupled with her movement allows Keeley to re-think the space of her installation in relation to her body. Each of her wall drawings are created in situ, marking a moment in space and time when the work—a visual document of her movement—is created.
For her installation at The Power Plant, Keeley will create a new wall drawing that will envelop the clerestory walls. Her drawings on these grand canvases are the remnants of her corporeal action and articulate the moment and gestures of her body. Keeley’s drawings act as performative objects. They emerge from choreographed gestures as they relate to the limits and conditions of a bound space.
Shelagh Keeley (born Oakville, Ontario) lives now in Toronto after spending 23 years in New York City and Paris. She received her Honours BFA in art history / anthropology from York University, Toronto. Keeley has an extensive international exhibition history over the last 30 years and has travelled across the globe. She recently created an on-site commissioned wall drawing installation at Stadtisches Museum Abteiberg, Monchengladbach, Germany for the exhibition In Order to Join (2013), which will travel to Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum, India (2014). Keeley has had exhibitions at Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon, India (2013), Ryerson Image Centre,Toronto (2013), Nuit Blanche, Paris, France (2012), Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver (2010), Caoyang Village Public Art Project, Shanghai,China (2009), National Gallery of Canada travelling exhibition (2008), RAM Foundation, Rotterdam (2008), Nature Morte Gallery, New Delhi (2004), Printed Matter, NYC (1998), Indianapolis Museum of Art (1995), John Gibson Gallery, NYC (1994), Exit Art, NYC (1993), MOMA P.S.1 Museum, NY (1992), DIA Art Foundation, NYC (1989). Her work is in the collection of major international public institutions including: The Museum of Modern Art, NYC, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis,Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Les Muses de la Ville de Paris, Paris, The Getty Museum, Santa Monica, Harvard Art Museum, Boston, The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, Yale University Art Gallery, CT, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA.
Notes on Obsolescence
20 September 2014 - 17 May 2015
The Power Plant is pleased to present a commissioned project by Toronto-based artist Shelagh Keeley. Keeley will create a new wall drawing that will envelop the gallery's clerestory walls.
The Power Plant is pleased to present a commissioned project by Toronto-based artist Shelagh Keeley.
In the late 1970s, Keeley began employing drawing as both a response to and exploration of Conceptual Art where the gesture of her hand and physicality of her body were integral to her mark making. As such, Keeley’s work involves a high degree of physical effort where the concrete resistance of the wall is juxtaposed with the fluidity of her hand and the extensions of her body. By working with the limits of the wall and the constraints of its architecture, Keeley defines a confined space within which she works within. These boundaries provide the artist with a counterpoint to the openness and improvisation of her physical action. More, the architecture coupled with her movement allows Keeley to re-think the space of her installation in relation to her body. Each of her wall drawings are created in situ, marking a moment in space and time when the work—a visual document of her movement—is created.
For her installation at The Power Plant, Keeley will create a new wall drawing that will envelop the clerestory walls. Her drawings on these grand canvases are the remnants of her corporeal action and articulate the moment and gestures of her body. Keeley’s drawings act as performative objects. They emerge from choreographed gestures as they relate to the limits and conditions of a bound space.
Shelagh Keeley (born Oakville, Ontario) lives now in Toronto after spending 23 years in New York City and Paris. She received her Honours BFA in art history / anthropology from York University, Toronto. Keeley has an extensive international exhibition history over the last 30 years and has travelled across the globe. She recently created an on-site commissioned wall drawing installation at Stadtisches Museum Abteiberg, Monchengladbach, Germany for the exhibition In Order to Join (2013), which will travel to Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum, India (2014). Keeley has had exhibitions at Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon, India (2013), Ryerson Image Centre,Toronto (2013), Nuit Blanche, Paris, France (2012), Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver (2010), Caoyang Village Public Art Project, Shanghai,China (2009), National Gallery of Canada travelling exhibition (2008), RAM Foundation, Rotterdam (2008), Nature Morte Gallery, New Delhi (2004), Printed Matter, NYC (1998), Indianapolis Museum of Art (1995), John Gibson Gallery, NYC (1994), Exit Art, NYC (1993), MOMA P.S.1 Museum, NY (1992), DIA Art Foundation, NYC (1989). Her work is in the collection of major international public institutions including: The Museum of Modern Art, NYC, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis,Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Les Muses de la Ville de Paris, Paris, The Getty Museum, Santa Monica, Harvard Art Museum, Boston, The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, Yale University Art Gallery, CT, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA.