Michael O'Keefe

On the Conception of the Hip

2018

The sculpture is painted cast plaster. The dimensions are for the painted cast plaster. The black base dimensions are 2 x 10 x 10 inches. About this body of work: “Everybody has that feeling when they look at a work of art and it’s right, that sudden familiarity, a sort of...recognition, as though they were creating it themselves, as though it were being created through them while they look at it or listen to it...” ―William Gaddis, "The Recognitions" “A great deal of my recent work was made during a time when I was reading the great American novel by William Gaddis, "The Recognitions," the most demanding book I’ve ever read. Along the way, I extracted sentence fragments that interested me and I pieced them together to make the titles for the last three years of my work. So, my recent work is linked to Gaddis’ novel through the titles, but also in the theme of “recognition,” which speaks to the nature of my work. I feel my way through various processes until I recognize a possibility―a possibility that is promising in terms of visual dynamics but also in terms of giving a body to some part of my experience. It is my hope that the viewer is compelled to recognize some part of themselves reflected in the work.” —Michael O’Keefe Michael O’Keefe earned his MFA from SMU and currently teaches at The O’Keefe Studio Center in Richardson, Texas. This sculpture was included in "Recognitions," his fifth solo exhibition at Valley House...

Michael O’Keefe’s sculptures, drawings, and paintings depict figurative narratives born from unpredictable processes. He couples innovative methods with unconventional tools to creat...

This contemporary plaster sculpture of a ram’s head is inspired by the art of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece with a reference to Neoclassicism and Neoclassical period old masters, when the discoveries of archaeological sites became the focal point in art history between the 18th and 19th century. The artist is able to attribute incredible details to this work of art featuring a majestic appearance due to its large curling ridged horns. This animal figurative work of art is sculpted on the round, the artist took inspiration both from his imagination and archaic reminiscences. He modeled the inert chalk creating an animal with very real facial expression and incredible realistic features with intricate detailed head. This sculpture is the plaster cast hand modeled by the artist that served him as a reference model to create a bronze sculpture with the lost wax technique, also the bronze version is on sale on my page. So it represents the first phase of a fascinating and long process of creating sculptural art, a studio piece made as a maquette before a bronze version was cast. The present aries' head sculpture has been painted to simulate the green patina that archaeological metal sculptures take over the centuries. Two green patina sculptures...

Inspired by nature and his 60 pet birds, Hunt Slonem is renowned for his distinct neo-expressionist style. He is best known for his series of bunnies, butterflies and tropical birds,...