Studio view, Fall 2010 All images copyright Paul O'Keeffe
invites you
to a viewing of works by Paul O'Keeffe
on Thursday, September 20, 2012 from 6-8 PM @ 162 West 21 Street, apt 3n NYC, NY
Paul O'Keeffe uses shifts in color to divide or unify diverse elements, to denote a form, to privilege, emphasize or supply a given element a function. Within these their are recognizable sub-sets in which O’Keeffe uses color as a means of differentiation between object (thing), support (structure), surface (exterior) and decoration (adornment,) or between material identities (processes) and the very logics and concepts that define their use. Subsequently, the changing qualities or effects of color in O’Keeffe’s works, which can be discerned in terms of appearance and structure, cannot be assigned a consistent a priori meaning, or function. This is because no one quality may be extracted in any clear manner; their specific sense lies within the context of how they are combined or juxtaposed. As such the very elements that characterize the appearance of these works are the product of a wide range of issues, and concerns whose implementation is marked by the associative, psychological, historical, and contingent conditions to which the artist is responding.
Paul O’Keeffe was born in Dublin, Ireland. As an undergraduate he attended St. Martin’s School of Art, London and the National College of Art and Design Dublin. He received a MFA from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1981. He joined the faculty of Kent State University in 1983 where he is currently a professor. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions both in the United States and abroad including exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Dublin. He is the recipient of a number of awards and honors including a Fulbright Fellowship, a Ford Foundation grant, nine Individual Artist Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council, an Arts Midwest/National Endowment for the Arts Award and several awards from the Arts Council of Ireland. Paul O’Keeffe’s work is represented in many public and private collections including The Arts Council of Ireland; Bayer USA, Pittsburgh; Progressive Insurance, Cleveland; Kaiser Permanante, Cleveland and the Cleveland Public Library.
Critical Voices is an ad-hoc organization that came into existence as a response to the the complex and changing conditions that affect the emergence of new practices, and ideas within the field of cultural production. CV seeks to creating a conceptual as well as a physical space that will facilitate participation in the shaping of cultural discourse locally, nationally and internationally. Critical Voices supports two programs, the first program is 21STPROJECT, which consists of informal showcase exhibitions by artists within the domestic setting of the 21Street loft of Saul Ostrow. The second program is LaTableRonde a series of by invitation only roundtable discussions on issues and themes impacting production in the field of visual culture.
For further information contact 21streetprojects@gmail.com
