Bespoke Gallery is pleased to present Recent Drawings, Patrick Keesey's first solo
exhibition with the gallery. A reception for the artist will be held on Thursday, June 25th
from 6 to 8 p.m.
The exhibition features over forty abstract small scale ink on paper drawings. Keeseyʼs
drawings explore the tension between seeing and marking, and the fundamental balance
and imbalance of these processes in making art.
Rather than representing the subject, his drawings record the action and immediacy of
seeing, itself. Remaining in the moment, Keesey notes the movement of the eye as it
skips over a subject, focuses on one point, or changes subjects entirely. He draws as
the eye looks, keeping his hand moving in pace with the eye as it observes. Without a
predetermined idea of the resulting image, or direct concern for its representation, he
responds to each subject intuitively. The resulting works are intimate meditations on the
role of the artist in translating, adopting, enhancing or creating visual cues.
Keesey commits himself to immediacy in his drawings, examining the relationship
between the actions of looking and mark making. Fundamentally, his drawing practice is
about the observation of observation – and the impermanence of how we observe and
what we observe. He watches himself look, as his hand documents the process. “It is a
practice that informs me of a world that is not, and cannot, be understood in a
systematic, rational, or pragmatic way. [It] often feels like a scientific pursuit, a practice
based on trial and error, that inadvertently notes the disparity between the the outer
world and the inner being.”
Keesey employs color in his drawings almost as a complement to the movements of his
eye and hand. His usage of ink and pigments are frequently made in response to the
subliminal specificity of place, but fundamentally serve to support his drawing process
rather than complete it.
Keesey is originally from Los Angeles and currently resides in New York City and Marfa,
Texas. He graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Painting.
The artist has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions and his paintings and
drawings are featured in a number of private collections.