"Breeding Cities" by Colin Keefe
On display in Shipley's Speer Gallery from October 7 – November 8, 2019.

Artist Statement:
My drawings explore methods for breeding urban environments using organic models – multicellular organisms’ reproductive and propulsion strategies, pollination methods employed by plants, or stellar birth. My source materials include urban planning, microbiology, and astronomy, and I consider all three to be related phenomena unfolding at different scales. The resulting images depict cities grown organically, without an “urban planner” as a protagonist, based on environmental conditions and observing "natural" rules that are internally consistent - a closed set describing the universe they inhabit.

About the Artist:
Colin Keefe (born in Boston, MA) received an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA from Washington University. His recent solo exhibitions include Robert Henry Contemporary, New York, NY, Abington Arts Center, Jenkintown, PA, and RHV Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY. His work has been reviewed in the New York Times, Village Voice, Bushwick Daily, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia City Paper, Toronto Globe and News, LA Times, Sculpture Magazine, theartblog.org and Title Magazine. In addition to his studio practice, Keefe has been curating since 1995 – first, as co-director of 57 Hope in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, NY (1995-2001), and currently as co-director of Mount Airy Contemporary (2009-present). Keefe is represented by Robert Henry Contemporary in New York.