Exhibiting Artist Don Keene of Madison Will Have A Solo Show

From Wallace Memorial Library: Exhibiting artist Don Keene of Madison will have a solo show starting September 27th at the Keyes Gallery at Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library in Stony Creek. Titled, Expressive Landscapes, the show runs through October 23rd. The opening reception, sponsored by the Friends of Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library, will be held Sunday, October 7th from 4-6 pm.

Keene’s exhibition centers on a series of 15 oil paintings, begun in 2011, depicting a wide range of landscape scenes. His idea for the series was to approach the traditional genre of landscape painting with a directness and lack of sentiment informed as much by 1950s abstract expressionism, as by William Glackens and his Ashcan School compatriots. Inspired by Edward Hopper’s underpopulated scenes of American life, most of these paintings lack human presence, while bringing out the abstract qualities and stark simplicity of the various scenes Keene is motivated to depict. Shape, color and texture are paramount concerns as he breaks the landscapes down to their essential elements, revealing not nostalgia, but rather the power and force of the sometimes stark vistas.

What’s unique about Keene as an artist is that this display of representational investigations is balanced against his other body of work, which is indebted more to the emotion-packed, human populated offerings of the German Expressionists such as Max Beckmann, and the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. This work has been included recently in five group shows at Lichtundfire Gallery in New York City, and is currently on view in Where to Draw the Line at OneWay Gallery in Narragansett, RI. Keene believes that working with the more traditional subject matter of landscape and similar realistic genres, similarly to practicing the scales on the piano, strengthens his more personal conceptual work and vice versa.

Don Keene is a 1984 graduate of Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design, and holds a Master’s Degree in Studio Art from the College of New Rochelle in New Rochelle, NY. He has been teaching art, publicly and privately, since 1987. His studio is at 4 New Road in Madison, CT. To view his work in this exhibit, go to www.donkeene.com and click on the “genre” section.

Images via Don Keene