Sated Soldier, Sated Peasant, Sated Scribe, 2021
Performance at CCA Goldsmiths, London, UK
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
Pages from The Hunters Enter the Woods Cartoon, 2024
acrylic, watercolour, coloured pencil and gold leaf on 70gsm acid free layout paper, masking tape, gaffer tape, cardboard cutouts, mic stands
Dimension variable
Sam Keogh
The Unicorn is Killed and brought to the Castle, 2023
colouring pencil, graphite, watercolour, acrylic, painters tape and gold leaf on 70gsm acid free layout paper, mic stands + recording of performance
dimensions variable
Installation at The Paper Biennial 2024, Museum Rijswijk, The Netherlands
Sam Keogh
The Unicorn Surrenders to a Maiden Cartoon, 2024
acrylic, watercolour, coloured pencil, gold leaf and painter’s tape on 70gsm acid-free layout paper
300 x 324 cm / 118.1 x 127.6 in
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
Crushed Fence, 2023
acrylic, watercolour, coloured pencil on 70gsm acid-free layout paper
41.5 x 56 cm / 16.3 x 22 in unframed
51.5 x 66 cm / 20.3 x 26 in framed
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
105 x 83 x 3.5 cm / 41.3 x 32.7 x 1.4 in framed
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
Centre Pompidou, 2019
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. Recent solo exhibitions include Atletika Gallery, Vilnius; Ada, Rome; Wells Projects, Margate (all 2024); Primary, Nottingham; Guts Gallery, Berlin; Plaza Plaza, London (all 2023); Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (2022); CCA Goldsmiths, London (2021); Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2020); Illuminations Gallery, Maynooth; 1646, The Hague and Mao Jihong Arts Foundation, Shanghai (all 2018). Keogh has participated in biennial exhibitions including Glasgow International (2024, 2018); Lagos Biennial (2024); Paper Biennale (2024); Lyon Biennale (2019); EVA International (2018, 2012); and steirischer herbst (2015).
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 presents a performance and large-scale paper collage installation at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin. The performance will be followed by a conversation with curator Vaari Claffey.
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.
