Sam Keogh works with installation, sculpture, performance, drawing and collage. Live performances unfold in intricate built environments: installations incorporating diverse materials, from collages and painted panels to plastic skeletons, ceramics to gunge-soaked computer desks, sculptures of severed hands and discarded apple cores, plants and bits of rubbish. These grotesque concoctions of image, object and detritus serve as props and visual cues for performances, but spill over with idiosyncratic detail and extraneous information – the physical remnants of a fictional world, they present an indeterminate space in which materials, memories and affects begin to smudge into each other. Keogh’s performances interweave research on diverse topics into meandering semi-fictional monologues that make surprising connections between political movements, biological processes, archaeology, housing, science fiction, or pop cultural phenomena. Like the sprawling and rebellious environments that house them, they present “a strange and abject cosmology of trash, contamination and revolt”.
Sam Keogh lives and works between Glasgow and Co. Wicklow.
Sam Keogh
Elden Knotweed NPC, 2022
colouring pencil, graphite, watercolour, acrylic and gold leaf on 70gsm acid free layout paper
218 x 124 cm / 85.8 x 48.8 in framed
Sam Keogh
Morgul Sacred Heart,2023
acrylic, watercolour, coloured pencil and painter’s tape on 70gsm acid-free layout paper
60 x 44 cm / 23.6 x 17.3 in unframed
69 x 51.5 cm / 27.2 x 20.3 in framed
Sam Keogh
Orcish Palisade NPC, 2022
colouring pencil, graphite, watercolour, acrylic and gold leaf on 70gsm acid free layout paper
218 x 124 cm / 85.8 x 48.8 in framed
Sam Keogh
Jam Mallet Fixed Watch Flower, 2021
acrylic, pencil, ink, gold leaf on acid free 70gsm marker paper
81 x 115.5 cm / 31.9 x 45.5 in
Sam Keogh
...I don’t think I’ll go tomorrow, 2022
acrylic, pencil, ink, gold leaf on acid free drafting vellum
98.5 x 76 cm / 38.8 x 29.9 in
Sam Keogh
Plague Doctor, 2019
mixed media sculpture, and performance with video, dimensions variable, approximately 37 minutes
Live performance at 'Cosmopolis #2, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Photo courtesy of Sam Keogh and Herve Veronese
Collection of Arts Council of Ireland
Sam Keogh
Knotworm, 2019
jesmonite, wire, cement, japanese knotweed, PVC tubing, trash, soil, watercolour on paper, ink on paper, acrylic on paper, toilet roll, cellophane, tape
Installation at La Biennale de Lyon, France 2019
Sam Keogh
Oscar Reduction Chamber #1, 2015
ceramics, galvanized steel bin, kiln shelf and wood
113 x 55 x 48 cm / 44.5 x 21.7 x 18.9 in
15 x 48 .5 x 48.5 cm / 5.9 x 18.9 2 x 19.1 in
Sam Keogh
Kapton Cadaverine, 2017
mixed media, dimensions variable
Installation at Kerlin Gallery
Sam Keogh
Eurocopter EC135, 2016
Installation at Dortmunder Kunstverein, Dortmund
4 June — 14 August 2016
Sam Keogh
untitled (mop), 2013
found objects, plaster, jesmonite, acrylic varnish, ink, papier-mâché
33 x 60 x 40 cm / 13 x 23.6 x 15.7 in
Sam Keogh
Monument for Subjects to Come, 2011
wood, expanding polyurethane foam, polystyrene, acrylic medium powdered mica, glitter, earth, laminated wrapping paper, selotape, rope, sponge & duct tape
322 x 153 x 480 cm / 126.8 x 60.2 x 189 in
Glasgow Internation, Glasgow Museum of Art, 2018
Sam Keogh’s work has been exhibited at the Pompidou Centre, Paris; Tate Modern, London; GrazMuseum, Graz; Dortmunder Kunstverein; the Public School, New York; Eli & Edythe Broad Museum, Michigan State University; Extra City Kunsthal, Antwerp; Lismore Castle Arts; Douglas Hyde Gallery, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Project Arts Centre and Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin. Current and forthcoming exhibitions include Primary, Nottingham (solo show, 8 July – 2 September); HERE COMES LOVE, Kerlin Gallery (14 July – 26 August), Guts Gallery, Berlin (solo show, October 2023 and Wells Projects, Margate (solo show, 2024). His most recent solo exhibitions include Plaza Plaza, London (all 2023); Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2020); Illuminations Gallery, Maynooth; 1646, The Hague and Mao Jihong Arts Foundation, Shanghai (all 2018), and he has forthcoming solo exhibitions at CCA Goldsmiths, London (2021) and Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (2022). Keogh has participated in biennial exhibitions including the Lyon Biennale, steirischer herbst, EVA International and Glasgow International.
Sam Keogh
Cosmopolis #2, 2019
Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
Sam Keogh
Where Water Comes Together With Other Water, 2019
15th Lyon Biennial, Lyon, France
Sam Keogh
Cellular World: Cyborg-Human-Avatar-Horror, 2018, as part of the Director’s Programme, Glasgow International
Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Glasgow, Scotland
Sam Keogh
Four Fold, 2015
Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
Sam Keogh
Cosmopolis #1.5: Enlarged Intelligence, 2018
Mao Jihong Arts Foundation in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou Chengdu, China
Sam Keogh
Terrestris, part of Conjuring for Beginners, 2012
Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland
Sam Keogh’s ‘The Unicorn is Killed and Brought to the Castle Cartoon’ (2023) will be exhibited as part of the Paper Biennial 2024, to include a performance by the artist during the biennial’s opening event.
Sam Keogh's solo exhibition The Hunters Enter The Woods Cartoon is at St Chads Projects, Kings Cross, London from 1–15 June.
Solo exhibition of drawing, painting, collage and performance by Sam Keogh.
Sam Keogh's large-scale figurative collage The Unicorn is Killed and Brought to the Castle Cartoon is the subject of a solo exhibition at Guts Gallery in Berlin,
A solo exhibition by Sam Keogh will relaunch the programme of Primary, Nottingham.
The Unicorn Surrenders To A Maiden Cartoon is a solo exhibition by Sam Keogh presenting an installation of large-scale figurative collage.
Group project with Beth Collar, Peli Grietzer, Sam Keogh, Yves Mettler, Sunny Puder, Theodore Cale Schafer, Oli Surel and Titre Provisoire. Curated by Oli Surel.
Sam Keogh's 'The Island' (2021) included in Rethinking Nature, curated by Kathryn Weir with associate curator Ilaria Conti at Museo Madre, Naples.
Running across the basement galleries of the Goldsmiths CCA, Sam Keogh presents a performance, installation of ceramic sculptures and collaged paintings on paper, that draw on pre-modern motifs and myths of abundance.
Sam Keogh presents a new performance and work for the group show ‘Trouble In Outer Heaven: Portable Ops Plus’, which focuses on the influence and fan cultures of ‘Metal Gear Solid’, one of the most popular video game franchises of all time.
