paul keir

preparatory work


Untitled


North pavilion
Priest's room


When I began to work on ideas for this project, I thought that the difficulty here was how to make something that wasn’t going to be overwhelmed by the context, nor be overly intrusive itself – in fact I gravitated to areas that were most like a ‘neutral’ gallery space, where my interventions would hold their own.


The paintings and objects were prompted initially by the colour and geometry of the arms above the front entrance gate of the house – I’ve always been interested in a kind of ‘heraldic’ abstraction – but that was just the ‘excuse’ I needed to start.


I made a lot more work than I actually used – the final configuration of painting, object and wall painting was decided intuitively during the install. I had never used the corner junction of two walls before, and was intrigued by how commanding that position seemed. All works were new and specific to the situation, and all were untitled.


Paul Keir makes walldrawings, paintings, objects, floorworks, and drawings: much of his work is centred on tensions between improvised and formal elements, and is characterised by a spareness and frankness of means. He taught at Edinburgh College of Art for many years and has been awarded a number of grants from the Scottish Arts Council and other bodies. He has undertaken residencies in Switzerland, UK and America, and has exhibited widely, in the UK and further afield. His work was most recently shown in “ABJAD” at the Ingleby Gallery in 2015.


More info on Paul can be found here.