Ken Kelleher

With an emphasis on mark-making, écriture (scriptural gesture), manipulated symbols, and ancient/contemporary alphanumerics, Mr. Kelleher forms an expressive personal vocabulary. Visual language and markings in many forms are important design elements that are paraphrased and at times rendered abstractly or in an expressionistic manner to create a perception that is at once familiar and yet unknowable.

The work is often structured in a square framework and developed in a serial format; each component piece, however, exists as an independent work. Modest in scale with a monochromatic palette, these works forge a subtly compelling and contemporary graphic idiom, exemplifying a delicate balance of scale, medium, and process that invites scrutiny and contemplation.

There may be a suggestion of ancient writs or tablets whose messages have been obscured by time, the hint of an esoteric discourse, or an ambiguous, graffiti-like message that can be understood only by the rare initiated. These enigmatic works challenge the viewer to decipher the secrets within this artful domain, and encourage a thoughtful engagement and aesthetic encounter.