Shelagh Keeley (born 1954) is a Canadian multi-disciplinary artist. She is best known for her drawings and immersive installations, but her practice also includes photography, film, collaborative performances, and artist's books.

Life

Keeley was born in Oakville, Ontario and graduated with an Honours BFA in Art History / Anthropology from York University, Toronto, in 1977. After spending 23 years in New York City and Paris, Keeley is now based in Toronto.

Work

Keely has exhibited in Canada and internationally since the 1980s. Her work has a sustained engagement with the theme of global labour, including a permanent steel installation inscribed with workers' slogans in the Jindal steel factory in Mumbai (2005), and a site-specific installation in the tea pavilion in Cao Yang Park, Shanghai, the site of a workers' housing project (2009). Her recent production includes a commission by

The Power Plant The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery is a Canadian non-collecting public contemporary art gallery located at the heart of Toronto, Ontario at the Harbourfront Centre. It is a registered Canadian charitable organization supported by its membe ...

, Toronto, to create a new installation for the venue's large clerestory walls (2014/15) and by

MoMA Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; Ang ...

, Library and Archives, NYC, for a new research / performance with choreographer Lin Snelling (2014/15). In 2010, the Robert McLaughlin Gallery and the McMaster University Museum of Art co-produced a 25-year retrospective of Keeley's work that also travelled to the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown, PEI, and the Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Awards

Keeley was the recipient of a

Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts The Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts are annual awards for achievements in visual and media arts in Canada. Up to eight awards are presented annually with the prize amount is $25,000 Created in 2000 by then Governor General Adrie ...

in 2017.

Collections

Her work is in the collections of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, NYC, the Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, the

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

, Amsterdam, the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the l ...

, Ottawa, the

Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Franc ...

, the

Ryerson Image Centre The Image Centre (formerly known as the Ryerson Image Centre and the Ryerson Gallery and Research Centre) is an photography and art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The centre is a university museum operated by Toronto Metropolitan University ...

, Toronto and the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

Select Exhibitions and Performances

*''An Embodied Haptic Place'' (solo),

Museum of Contemporary Art Museum of Contemporary Art (often abbreviated to MCA, MoCA or MOCA) may refer to: Africa * Museum of Contemporary Art (Tangier), Morocco, officially le Galerie d'Art Contemporain Mohamed Drissi Asia East Asia * Museum of Contemporary Art Shangha ...

, Toronto, ON (2020). *''Through the Memory Atlas: 40 Years of Collecting,'
Kamloops Art Gallery
Kamloops (2018). * ''Persistence,''

, Vancouver (2017). * ''4th Canadian Biennial,''

, Ottawa (2017). * ''When Form Becomes Attitude,'
Contemporary Calgary
(2016). * ''The Unfinished Conversation: Encoding/Decoding,'' Museu Colecao Berardo, Lisbon (2016) and

, Toronto (2015). * ''Border Cultures, Part 3 (security, surveillance),''

Art Gallery of Windsor Art Windsor-Essex (AWE) (formerly known as the Art Gallery of Windsor) is a not-for-profit art institute in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Established in 1943, the gallery has a mandate as a public art space to show significant works of art by local ...

(2015). * ''Notes on Obsolescence'' (solo)'',''

, Toronto (2014–15). * ''Here and There: Photography and Video Works on Immigration,''

, Toronto (2013). *''Construction Site: Identity and Place,'' Kamloops Art Gallery,

Kamloops Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the South flowing North Thompson River and the West flowing Thompson River, east of Kamloops Lake. It is located in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, w ...

, BC (2010). * ''An Encyclopedia of Memory and Slowness'' (solo), Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (now

), Toronto (2007).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Keeley, Shelagh 1954 births Living people 20th-century Canadian women artists 21st-century Canadian women artists Artists from Ontario Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners People from Oakville, Ontario York University alumni