Saskatchewan Arts Board

Curator: Linda Jansma
Organized by The Robert McLaughlin Gallery

Senior Canadian artist, Shelagh Keeley, came to international prominence in the early 1980s. And yet, a comprehensive critical assessment of her contribution to the on-going discourse on contemporary art has been lacking. This retrospective exhibition answers this gap and examines Keeley's contribution to artistic form, concept, process and discourse.

At a very early point in the debates that challenged and, ultimately, changed the global art world, Keeley was investigating issues such as access, representation, feminism and diversity in her drawings and wall paintings. Her juxtapositions of trauma and beauty create raw images that begin to respond to the historical imbalance between "the West and the Rest;" culturally, politically, socially and aesthetically. Critically engaged as they are, Keeley's works are thoroughly sensual and visceral in palette, composition and execution. In later works, Keeley conflates images of the body with images of architecture, domestic activities and the erotic. Each of these are on-going and recurring themes for the artist that are indicative of both changes to society but also the changing hand and gaze of the mature artist.