The Kerlin Gallery is delighted to announce its first show of 2006, an exhibition of new work by William McKeown, entitled hope paintings, hope drawings & open drawings.

William McKeown's work engages with the more delicate, indefinable qualities of nature, in particular the sky and the air above and around us, often with an emphasis on the emergence of daylight as experienced in the morning hours. McKeown's work in recent years was defined by the artist's highly crafted surfaces and meticulous application of thin washes of paint. This exhibition of new work comprised of oil on canvas, watercolour on paper and pencil drawings marks a distinct shift towards a more gestural, expressive brush work producing a more pronounced painterly effect. These paintings evolve McKeown's remarkably refined sense of colour and understanding of light resulting in a body of work that is poetic, expansive and evocative of nature while remaining subtle and quietly restrained.

McKeown studied at Central/St Martin's School of Art & Design, London, Glasgow School of Art and the University of Ulster at Belfast. Recent solo shows include, The Bright World, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast; The Project Gallery, Dublin; Cloud Cuckoo Land The Paradise (16); Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, all 2004; The Sky Begins At Our Feet, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast; Forever Paintings, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, 2002 and In an open room, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, 2001.

McKeown has participated in a number of group exhibitions including Northern Irelands representation at the 51st Venice Biennale, 2005; Rooms for Waiting In, Galway Arts Centre, 2005; Four Now, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork 2005; The Holiday Show, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 2002; The Sea & The Sky at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin and Beaver College Art Gallery, Glenside, Pennsylvania, 2000; A Measured Quietude which toured the Berkeley Art Museum, California and The Drawing Center, New York in 1999/2000 and East International, Norwich, and Residue at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, both in 1997. McKeown was short-listed for the prestigious Irish Museum of Modern Art Glen Dimplex Award in 1997. His work is represented in many private collections in Europe, the UK and Ireland.

Forthcoming exhibitions include a solo show at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2007.