Ken Keeley Biography
Born: Brooklyn, New York
Education: School Of Industrial Arts, New York
Ken Keeley is kind of a lone wolf in the art world. He entered the world of commerce with signed cibachrome prints then moved on to the many over-size silkscreen editions and posters of Newsstands and Times Squares, 59 Street Bridge, Nathan’s Famous and the Carnegie Deli, mostly rare and traded briskly on the secondary market. Many people get their impressions of New York City from a Ken Keeley rendition. Today, Keeley self-publishes his paintings in the giclee format. His works of art are held in public collections such as the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art, Malcom Forbes Public Museum, Reading Museum of Fine Art and Stoney Brook University, Long Island, New York…”
– Victor Forbes
“Keeley has mastered the intimate visual rendition of a large universal scene, in intimate detail and sustained with a certain emotion. Not quite a nostalgia, but an acknowledgement of how things were, how they are and how they be now. With a steady hand and a keen eye, painting out of the home studio he shares with his wife outside Lake Placid, Florida, Keeley is exploring new ways to convey the active stillness that connects the artist with the many thousands who own a Keeley poster, painting or print. His is a genuine work ethic, you won’t find projectors or studio assistants, just one man chipping away at the big picture, one element at a time, same as he did when he started out some thirty years ago.
These days he is finding that his colors are shifting, getting deeper, bolder with richer textures. ‘Just a natural transition’, he says. ‘There is more of a build up of paint.’ He creates, literally, in the midst of a nature preserve, to the music of the many birds who visit his hideaway. He does all things well with a paint brush, meticulous, with care, with respect for the work, the tradition and the viewer. A humble man who went from a purchasing agent in the armed forces, when Eisenhower was president, to an artist who commands substantial amounts for his paintings and silk screens…” from Fine Art Magazine, Spring 2005
