Today we’d like to introduce you to Ken Kelleher.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
For the last 20 years or so, after art school, I made my living as a digital designer, as I wasn’t able to set up a studio space to make sculpture until a few years ago when I bought a farm, with a large metal outbuilding. Since then began sculpting in the studio and expanding my toolset, primarily working in welded steel and carved wood.
This past year I began making renderings for larger-scale pieces that I see as part of a dialogue with the potential created in urban spaces. The renderings have started getting attention, and I’ve started working on site-specific proposals. My main goal with the renderings is not to limit myself to what I can physically do in my studio with my own hands – but to really push what’s possible when I harness the power of working with fabrication teams.
Please tell us about your art.
My art has a variety of influences. I try not to limit myself in terms of getting stuck in certain genres or modes.
I think my art is meant to inspire. I see sculpture as an ongoing dialogue between many things. Material, form, substance, light / shadow, time / space & content. Sculpture is curiosity made visible in three dimensions…with additional dimension or two added to it. The dimension of time, and one of imagination. At what point does a shape, a form co-exist within the viewer as well as in the world, in the imagination. What chords or resonance within a person does this sculpture create, what does it represent?
I like the idea of a physical object interrupting a person that may be on a typical route on a typical day – and this object stopping them and basically asking them to think, to ponder some elemental aspects of this existence, like form, light, and life.
Sculpture, for me, is an inquiry into the deep, mysterious nature of things.
Do you have any advice for other artists? Any lessons you wished you learned earlier?
Yes, don’t limit yourself by your ideas of what are is, or what you think is possible. Be willing to push the boundaries of what you think you can make.
The art world, in the socio-economic sense – isn’t your soul or imagination. It currently represents a small minority or artists, in the larger sense, and a small percentage of what’s possible. It takes a long time for people to catch on, or accept new ideas and new work. Be persistent.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
People can see my work on my site: http://www.kenkelleher.com/ and on my Instagram currently: https://www.instagram.com/anchorball/
The best way to support my work is to commission it. If you see a piece, you like and are interested in it contact me. All of the pieces you see on my site, that are the renderings, can be created at any scale. So the giant 30ft sculpture you see a rendering of, could actually be a coffee table piece or a piece for the garden.
On my site, you can also see other pieces I’ve made in my studio that are available as well.
If you are aware of any building / cultural projects that could use some sculpture as part of the project, I’m always interested. I like to collaborate.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.kenkelleher.com/
- Email: info@anchorball.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anchorball/
Image Credit:
Ken Kelleher
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