Michael O'Keefe

Agathist Head

2013

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

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...

From Memories of Egypt Series. The figure has always been Deborah Ballard’s muse in her sculptures. Ballard works in bronze, cast stone, and plaster; her figures ranging from life-s...

The figure has always been Deborah Ballard’s muse in her sculptures. Ballard works in bronze, cast stone, and plaster; her figures ranging from life-size to hand-size. Ballard says...

"Metaphors, symbols, the material world, the collective unconscious and the spiritual realm generate the sources in which I investigate images for the viewer to interact with. Becaus...

"Metaphors, symbols, the material world, the collective unconscious and the spiritual realm generate the sources in which I investigate images for the viewer to interact with. Becaus...

Mixed media and Painted wood, wall sculpture by Rick Prol.

The sculpture Cranium (2020) is an exploration of consciousness in isolation. It re-imagines the human skull as an ever-expanding container, complete with its own internalized logic...