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Kerlin Gallery presents
William McKeown
at 26 Place des Vosges, 75003, Paris.

An Open Room
Kerlin Gallery
2023

An Open Room
Kerlin Gallery
2023

William McKeown’s art was driven by a lifelong pursuit of openness and a belief in the primacy of feeling. His paintings act like windows into the expansiveness beyond, offering liberation from constraint, or quite simply a breath of air, and a point of connection with the world. In the thirteen years since his untimely passing, the artist’s work has continued to resonate with new audiences worldwide, and the underlying quest of his work – for hope, freedom, connection, happiness, dancing, and oneness with nature – remains as vital as ever.

This presentation at Place des Vosges brings together a selection of McKeown’s oil paintings and works on paper. Both use subtle gradations of tone to create moments of exquisite beauty, heightened by a tension between freedom and containment. They range from a clear sky blue through the subtle gradients of twilight into bolder, more contrastive works and finally into more sombre tones of grey and black. These late paintings often feature painted borders that appear irregular, broken, or perhaps permeable or ‘open’. At times, the perimeter encloses only three sides – “a post-and-lintel framing of a luminous field beyond”, suggests critic and lecturer Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith in a recently published artist monograph.

William McKeown 

Untitled, 2009–2011
oil on linen

45.5 x 45.5 cm / 17.9 x 17.9 in   

William McKeown 

Untitled, 2009–2011
oil on linen

45.5 x 45.5 cm / 17.9 x 17.9 in   

Inquire
William McKeown 

Freedom Drawing – Starlings #3, 2006

Watercolour on paper 

58 x 50 cm / 22.8 x 19.7 in unframed  

60.5 x 53.3 cm / 23.8 x 21 in framed

 

William McKeown 

Freedom Drawing – Starlings #3, 2006

Watercolour on paper 

58 x 50 cm / 22.8 x 19.7 in unframed  

60.5 x 53.3 cm / 23.8 x 21 in framed

 

Inquire
William McKeown 

Untitled, 2009–2011

oil on linen

45.5 x 45.5 cm / 17.9 x 17.9 in   

William McKeown 

Untitled, 2009–2011

oil on linen

45.5 x 45.5 cm / 17.9 x 17.9 in   

Inquire
William McKeown 

Blue, 2009–2011

oil on linen

48 x 48 cm / 18.9 x 18.9 in   

William McKeown 

Blue, 2009–2011

oil on linen

48 x 48 cm / 18.9 x 18.9 in   

Inquire
William McKeown 

Freedom Drawing – Starlings #6, 2006

Watercolour on paper 

58 x 50 cm / 22.8 x 19.7 in unframed  

60.5 x 53.3 cm / 23.8 x 21 in framed

 

William McKeown 

Freedom Drawing – Starlings #6, 2006

Watercolour on paper 

58 x 50 cm / 22.8 x 19.7 in unframed  

60.5 x 53.3 cm / 23.8 x 21 in framed

 

Inquire
William McKeown 

Untitled (Study), 2009–2011

oil on linen

48 x 48 cm / 18.9 x 18.9 in   

William McKeown 

Untitled (Study), 2009–2011

oil on linen

48 x 48 cm / 18.9 x 18.9 in   

Inquire
William McKeown 

Untitled, 2009–2011
oil on linen

45.5 x 45.5 cm / 17.9 x 17.9 in   

William McKeown 

Untitled, 2009–2011
oil on linen

45.5 x 45.5 cm / 17.9 x 17.9 in   

William McKeown 

Freedom Drawing – Starlings #3, 2006

Watercolour on paper 

58 x 50 cm / 22.8 x 19.7 in unframed  

60.5 x 53.3 cm / 23.8 x 21 in framed

 

William McKeown 

Freedom Drawing – Starlings #3, 2006

Watercolour on paper 

58 x 50 cm / 22.8 x 19.7 in unframed  

60.5 x 53.3 cm / 23.8 x 21 in framed

 

William McKeown 

Untitled, 2009–2011

oil on linen

45.5 x 45.5 cm / 17.9 x 17.9 in   

William McKeown 

Untitled, 2009–2011

oil on linen

45.5 x 45.5 cm / 17.9 x 17.9 in   

William McKeown 

Blue, 2009–2011

oil on linen

48 x 48 cm / 18.9 x 18.9 in   

William McKeown 

Blue, 2009–2011

oil on linen

48 x 48 cm / 18.9 x 18.9 in   

William McKeown 

Freedom Drawing – Starlings #6, 2006

Watercolour on paper 

58 x 50 cm / 22.8 x 19.7 in unframed  

60.5 x 53.3 cm / 23.8 x 21 in framed

 

William McKeown 

Freedom Drawing – Starlings #6, 2006

Watercolour on paper 

58 x 50 cm / 22.8 x 19.7 in unframed  

60.5 x 53.3 cm / 23.8 x 21 in framed

 

William McKeown 

Untitled (Study), 2009–2011

oil on linen

48 x 48 cm / 18.9 x 18.9 in   

William McKeown 

Untitled (Study), 2009–2011

oil on linen

48 x 48 cm / 18.9 x 18.9 in   

installations

William McKeown
Château La Coste, Aix-en-Provence, France
curated by Jonathan Anderson
2022

William McKeown
Château La Coste, Aix-en-Provence, France
curated by Jonathan Anderson
2022

The Dayroom, 2004–2010
Dallas Museum of Art, USA
2016

The Dayroom, 2004–2010
Dallas Museum of Art, USA
2016

about the artist

William McKeown at Place des Vosges - 26 Place des Vosges, 75003, Paris - Fairs - Kerlin Gallery

WILLIAM MCKEOWN
b. Tyrone, Northern Ireland, 1962
d. Edinburgh, Scotland, 2011

William McKeown’s work has been exhibited at the Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, NY; The Drawing Centre, New York; BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels; Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh and National Gallery of Ireland. In 2022, McKeown was the subject of the inaugural exhibition at the Richard Rogers Gallery, Château La Coste, curated by Jonathan Anderson. He has also had solo exhibitions at Dallas Museum of Art; LOEWE Design District Store, Miami; Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh; mima, Middlesbrough; the Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin; Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore and Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast. In 2005, he represented Northern Ireland in the 51st Venice Biennale.