Andy Kehoe and Kelly Allen @ Thinkspace (July 7th, 2012)

[ceevee]

Thanks for the preview pics. I especially like the inside peek at the artist's workspace with work in progress. These pics in particular have me thinking...

I'm curious how long it takes Andy to complete a resin paintings versus the older ones and how that has changed his approach. It looks like he is painting on an angled drafting table and he certainly can't do that until the layer is completely fixed, which probably necessitates working on various pieces in shifts versus one at a time. Just pure speculation. Maybe he'll talk about this in one of the upcoming interviews.

[murdock]

Can't get over these new Kehoe pieces... so amazing and such a cool way of taking his art one step further. With "Together at the Threshold" (nice to see it looming in the background), this already looked so "layered" in the 2D-print - I can only imagine how cool these layers must look for real...

[Thinkspace]

Thank you everyone so much for the kind words on the show so far, have been sharing the reaction with Andy. I'll be holding one of these babies in my hands tomorrow for the 1st time and it's almost like awaiting Christmas morning, so damn anxious to gaze upon them in person!

We've a nice interview coming up on Sour Harvest in the days ahead and I will post a link here once live where Andy talks about the new works. He is indeed working on multiple pieces at the same time and as each layer of resin dries, moving back and forth from piece to piece as he builds up each individual piece. He's basically taken the cradled wood panels he's always created upon and flipped them, creating a pocket of sorts, and filling them up with multiple layers of resin and then applying a mix of acrylic and oil along with natural flora and more.


Andy Kehoe 'Watch Over Me' - featured in 'Into The Depths' opening July 7th at Thinkspace

Andy Kehoe’s new body of work 'Into the Depths' continues the artist’s very personally inflected exploration of memory and the personal imaginary. The work is thematically akin to fairytale, as Kehoe delves into an iconography that speaks of childhood fantasies and adult nightmares; of fears and of wants translated disproportionately into the adult’s psychic realm. The end result is an uneasy pairing of whimsy and ominousness. Kehoe uses the suggestion of narrative to imply a trajectory beyond the image plane. The viewer is left feeling as though they have had a glimpse into a much longer, and more significant vignette. Just as all effective suggestions of narrative leave one feeling the absence of its absolute resolution, we feel a mesmerizing pull to Kehoe’s narrative fragments, and wonder what else lies beneath the surface.

The setting of the work is primarily arboreal: the fairytale’s stomping ground par excellence, and its characters vary from faceless amorphous specters, to giant seemingly sympathetic animals. A perfect combination of anthropomorphic creatures, and fantastical substitutions for the human, the fairy tale speaks of reality in the realm of shadow. Visually, Kehoe uses the dramatic devices of light and contrast to expound upon the emotional and atmospheric tensions the work seems to convey. Stark whites, and strategic areas of luminous color, are drawn out in contrast to pitch blacks, and obscure earth tones. Fine
lines exist against solid blocks of color and areas of textured surface. The work is graphically compelling and visually seductive; combining an economy of line with a simplicity of palette.

Materially, this new body of work marks a departure for Kehoe. Using a poured resin technique, in conjunction with his accustomed paint and ink application, the artist creates further accretions of depth. This use of layering suspends the imagery spatially and contributes to the work’s mystery, visual seduction, and complexity. As though we are looking into an ominously reflective surface that might just show us more of ourselves than we had thought, the added dimensional illusion of resin suspends our gaze. Andy Kehoe’s work is compelling, haunting, and magnetic. Into the Depths reminds us of the presence of shadows always lurking just beneath the surface.

[ceevee]

I love the texture that he gets in this piece - the sky, the beak. Very impressive new work from Andy here.

[Thinkspace]

Juxtapoz just posted a short 'back talk' interview with Kehoe here:
www.juxtapoz.com/Current/back-talk-a-co ... andy-kehoe

[AlanCampbell]

All the process photos and that interview were great making me appreciate his work alot more

[Thinkspace]

All the process photos and that interview were great making me appreciate his work alot more

Great to hear, thanks so much Alan. Posting a much more in depth interview at Sour Harvest tomorrow - will post here once live.

[Thinkspace]

Kelly Allen 'Golden Day' - featured in 'Hidden Seeking' opening July 7th at Thinkspace

Just posted my interview with Kelly Allen on our blog here:
www.sourharvest.com/2012/07/02/an-inter ... lly-allen/

[ottomatik71]

I hope that Kelly Allen becomes a print!
Beautiful!

[Thinkspace]

Kelly Allen 'Second Sight' - oil on lasercut birch panel (2012) - featuring in 'Hidden Seeking' opening July 7th at Thinkspace

Check out Juxtapoz’s full interview with Kelly here:
http://www.juxtapoz.com/Current/back-ta ... elly-allen

* The shadowing above is created by the work's multi-dimensional aspect - layer upon layer of laser cut birch, creating a stunning visual effect on the wall.

[Thinkspace]

Andy Kehoe's 'Cloaked In A Vast and Quiet Wonder' - featured in 'Into the Depths' opening Sat, July 7th at Thinkspace

Just posted my interview with Andy here:
http://www.sourharvest.com/2012/07/04/a ... y-kehoe-2/

* The piece above, it's almost like you can reach out and grab the leaves in person - these pieces are SO insanely good. I know us gallery types say it all the time, but I just can not stress enough how much pictures do not do this work justice. Once we have all installed on Thursday evening I am going to shoot some video to try and show the different angles and such and hope that further helps to illustrate just how much Andy has knocked it out of the park with this new material direction. They just live and breath on the wall in such a way that is hard to capture on a computer screen.

[murdock]

... I know us gallery types say it all the time, but I just can not stress enough how much pictures do not do this work justice...

I totally believe you and still, I CAN NOT WAIT for that show preview!!!

And cool idea with the video

[Thinkspace]

... I know us gallery types say it all the time, but I just can not stress enough how much pictures do not do this work justice...

I totally believe you and still, I CAN NOT WAIT for that show preview!!!

And cool idea with the video

Thanks Murdock! Preview going out tomorrow at 8AM PST and we'll give all a few hours to view it and get back to us with their choices and we'll start to get back to folks come end of the day and throughout the day on Friday. Off to pick up Andy from LAX and go and layout his show and then to

[murdock]

Alrighty - have a good one!

[trixie41]

I love that last one...thanks for all the previews and best of luck with the show. They all look amazing!