Daniel Mc Keon
STATEMENT : Daniel Mc Keon : June 2023
Daniel Mc Keon is a studio based Irish contemporary visual artist working for over 25 years from a studio in the historical Henrietta Street area of Dublin 1 Ireland. He is primarily a Painter who’s practice includes the exploration of hybrid artworks which can be the result of various combination of paint, print, photographs, collage, influenced by everything from mythology, literature, sexuality, text, figuration and the body.
My art practice over time has included collage, artist books/analogue online e-books, print, photography, video and collaborations ( Berkeley Commons Ground / Round TableCollage Projects 2013and most years up to 2023) The RTCP grew out of PRAXIS an online collaborative group of artist who made projects mostly exhibited online and was hosted on the old artreview site.
Collage has always informed and played a pivotal ingredient in how I process my life and art. For me it represent a very democratic way of seeing the world and in its hybridity is very much of the present but also going back in time from daDa to Surrealism up to our present day contemporary existence much used in Film, Music and is a readily understood cultural reference point.
My work is usually made in various series with no signature style used in their production. Some of my previous series of works are titled, The Urban Series – Surface Support – Henrietta Street Paintings – Fantasy Botanic Gardens – The Gravity Series – Janus Series -Babble Unspoken Words Series, up to my current Henrietta Suite works.
During the Pandemic the internet was of upmost importance for our survival while at the same time we existed in isolation. At this time of various restricted lockdowns I made the “Babble Unspoken Words Series”, paintings relevance seemed to be in the very slow time act of painting and just BEING as a reaction to social media and the internet where cognitive overload is the order of the day. Making oil paintings involved the gesture of hand and mind centring the process back to our humanity. This building up of many layers within the surface which referenced time and the imperfection they record in the history of their making.
My paintings are concerned with perception the material qualities of paint and the physical act of painting itself which has its own autonomous language, they are are not representation in the sense of trying to achieve a likeness but exist within their own pictorial architecture.The paintings become the sum total of their process and production over time. Their surface is not a static one and I see them almost like a new form of cubism were the subject is seen moving simultaneously observed from many angles and perspectives in time and space.
At present I am trying to liberate my worldview from the linear western approach to art history and the Greenbergian formalism which mostly influenced my work in the past. Life and Art is a constant challenge especially in this age of post truth- post internet – post studio – post human – post material. My new works I visualise almost as a “Stream of Consciousness“ were the paintings reflects my interior monologue and processing of my daily experiences going forward in these very uncertain times.
DANIEL MC KEON CV.
Daniel Mc Keon is a contemporary Irish artist working from a studio in the historic Henrietta Street Area of Dublin 1 since 1995. He attended Dun Laoghaire School of Art (1977-1979) and was an early member of the Visual Arts Centre Dublin (1977-1983), one of the first co-operatives artist led spaces in Ireland. Member Visual Artist Ireland.
Between 1979-1984 Daniel has exhibited in many groups exhibitions: 29th Annual Limerick Arts Society, Municipal Gallery, Limerick (1979); OIREACHTAIS, Bank of Ireland H.Q Dublin and Belltable, Limerick (1982, 1984); Head Gallery, Ormond Building, Dublin (1993); Municipal Arts Centre, Drogheda, Co. Louth (1994); Claremorris Open, Group Show, Claremorris, Co. Mayo, selected by Patrick Murphy (1988); First Mini-Print Exhibition, Hendrix Gallery, Dublin (1987); Copy and Computer Art Exhibition R.D.S, Dublin (Highly Commended) (1986); Listowel 4th International Print Biennial, Listowel, Limerick, Cork, Galway (1985); Postcard Exhibition, A.R.E. Belfast, Touring Northern Ireland and U.K. (1985); Independent Artist 25th Anniversary Exhibition, Guinness Hop Store, Dublin (1985); Claremorris Open, Claremorris, Co. Mayo, selected by Michael Shepherd, Sunday Telegraph (1984).
Awards: Arts Council of Ireland Materials/Equipment Award; Arts- Flight Aer Lingus Travel Award; Arts Council of Ireland Studio Rental Assistance Grant; Publication grants for Response Exhibition Catalogue (1995), Publication Grant for Flux Exhibition Catalogue (1997)
Collections: Leinster House Dublin, OPW (Office of Public Works); Great Southern Hotels. Private collections: Ireland, UK, Germany, Russia, France, USA, Estonia.
Solo Exhibitions:
1991. Droichead Arts Centre. Drogheda, Co LouthOct. 1995
Altered States. The Guinness Gallery. Foxrock, Co. Dublin
Aug. -Sep. 1998. Resonance: The Spectral of Being with Jackie Askew, as part of Kilkenny Arts Festival, Watermill Gallery. Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny
2003-2006. New Works Studies View. Henrietta Street Studios, Dublin
Nov.- Dec. 2008 Autumn Exhibition. The Central Bank of Ireland, organized by Access to Art Gallery
June-July 2013 Chroma, The Courthouse Gallery. Ennistymon, Co. Claire
Selected Group Exhibitions: 1995 – 2023
May 1995 Response. Multi-media Exhibition, the Irish Life Exhibition Center, Dublin. Exhibitor/Curator
August 1995. Boyle Arts Festival, Co. Roscommon
Sept. 1996. Claremorris Open. Selected by Rui Sanchez, Director Centro De Arte Moderna, Lisbon), Claremorris, Co. Mayo
Sept. 1996. S.O.S Art Festival. Selected by Mick Cullen, Ardgillan Castle, Co. Dublin
Nov.- Dec. 1996. Open Plan. Catalyst Arts Members Show, Belfast
Nov 1996- Jan 1997. Claremorris Exhibition. Claremorris, Co. Mayo and Hexham, UK
Dec. 1996. Power House Art. The Bolton Trust, Power House, Dublin
Feb. 1997. Irish Scottish Art. Multimedia Exhibitions. Burgwedel, Hannover, Germany
May 1997. The Reading Room. Artists Books, Catalyst Arts, Belfast
May 1997- 1998. 120 Artists on CD, South Tipperary Arts Centre, Touring Arts Centers in Ireland and ending in Austria
Aug. 1997. 3rd Wexford Book Exhibition, Wexford Arts Centre. Touring various Arts Centers in Ireland
July 1998. Six Dubliners (Mick Cullen, Anne Seagrave, Charles Cullen, Martin Yelverton, Jackie Askew) Painting, Performance, Photography as part of Greenwich and Dockland International Arts Festival, Art in Perpetuity Trust Gallery/Studios, London, UK
Sept. 1998. S.O.S. Skerries Arts Festival (invited artist) Ardgillan Castle, Co. Dublin.
Oct- April 1998. Flux. Multimedia Touring Exhibition. Kilkenny Town Hall, Co. Kilkenny; Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda, Co. Louth; South Tipperary Arts Centre, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary; Bank of Ireland Arts Centre, Dublin. Curated with artist Jackie Askew
July 1999 CDG. Art of Refreshment Award Exhibition, Art House, Temple Bar, Dublin
Dec. 1999. RAMUS Artcore Annual Exhibition, Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht, and the Islands
June 2000. Group Show at World End Studies, Dublin 1; Opened by Patrick Murphy, Director of Arts Council of Ireland
Sep.-Dec. 2000. Art of the State Emerging Art II Touring Exhibition organized by the OPW and the Department of Finance and Personnel, Kilkenny Castle, Co. Kilkenny; Burnavon Arts Centre, Cookstown, Co. Tyron; Newry Arts Centre, Co. Down; Siopa Chill Rialaig, Ballinskelligs, Co. Kerry
2013 PRAXIS Artist Group: 2000/10 various collaborative online based arts projects: Video- eBook-100 Circles-Blog. Hosted by the magazine Art Review site.
June-July 2002. The artists of Henrietta Street at ArtSelect, (Charles Cullen, Mick Cullen, Louise Peat, Jean-Marc Vidal) Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, Dublin
May 2003. Every Blooming thing, National Botanic Garden Exhibition Centre, Dublin
May- July 2009. RHA (Royal Hibernian Academy) 179th Annual Exhibition. Invited artist
2010-2011. The Clyne Gallery, Temple Bar, Dublin
May- July 2013. RHA (Royal Hibernian Academy) 183rd Annual Exhibition. Invited artist
March- June 2013. Postal Collage Project. Curated by Marty McCutcheon; The Shuman Block Berkeley CA; Ramon Tailor, San Francisco, CA.; East Bay Open Studio Festival, Berkeley, CA. USA
Aug. Sep. 2021. Pluid Project 2021, Curated by Claire Halpin and Madeleine Hellier (A National Comfort Blanket) The Cowshed Gallery Farmleigh Estate Dublin; following the Exhibition the Artworks were auctioned in aid of Pieta House Dublin.
Oct. Nov. 2021. Elmira 65 RTCP10: A Berkeley Commonplace Project: George Walters Gallery; Curated by Prof. Jan Karther; Elmira College, New York USA.
Dec. 2022- Jan.2023. TRASNA XI Courthouse Gallery and Studios, Ennistymon, Co. Claire Ireland.
June 2022. Summer Exhibition. Ranelagh Arts Centre, Dublin Ireland.
Nov. 2022. Arthouse in aid Outhouse LGBT+ community Centre Dublin and Auction Benefit for Outhouse, Dublin
May 2023. Berkeley Commonplace: Round Table Collage Project RTCP12, Berkeley Arts Centre, 1275 Walnut St., Berkeley, CA. USA
May- June 2023. Summer of Love, Summer Open Exhibition, The Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon, Co, Claire Ireland.
August 2023. East Bay Media Centre August 12th – 27th 2023. Berkeley Commonplace Exhibition RTCP12.
August – October. TRANSIENCE : ArtNetdlr Members Group Exhibition selected by artist Carmel Benson at Walter Dun Laoghaire Co Dublin August to end October 2023.
Collections : Leinster House Dublin. OPW office of public works. Great Southern Hotels. Private Collections : Ireland. Germany. UK. France. USA. Russia. Estonia.
Daniel Mc Keon 