AMAG PRESENTS “THROUGH A WOODEN LENS: HOLD FAST” Reception

St. Thomas Aquinas’ Azarian-McCullough Art Gallery (“AMAG”) announces “Through a Wooden Lens: Hold Fast” featuring the works of Maureen Kelleher. The exhibit opens January 23 and runs through February 29. A reception will be held Wednesday, February 8 from 4:30-6:30PM, wh...ich also includes an artist’s discussion at 5:30PM. Refreshments will be served.

Maureen is a self trained artist whose mixed media collages on plywood panels or wooden pallets resemble colorful quilts. Using cloth, paper, paint, metal hardware, photographs, and pieces of wood with engraved text, the artist creates imagery that reflects upon her childhood, her adult life as a social activist and her ongoing fascination with the African American experience.

The raw visual nature of this latter genre which has explored the life and times of freedom fighter Harriet Tubman, writer James Baldwin, lynch victim Laura Nelson (1911 Oklahoma) and painter Beauford Delaney, has compelled New Orleans writer, Rodney L. Bickham to note that Kelleher is a white woman creating “black art.” Bickham’s reflections call to mind issues of misassumption and racial stereotyping.

Maureen Kelleher was born in 1959 at West Point, NY, the eighth of eight daughters to Mary Jo and Jim Kelleher. She graduated from the University of Florida in 1982 with a degree in philosophy and moved to
New Orleans. During a 2001 pre-Katrina storm, Maureen was inspired to become an artist after reading a biography of James Baldwin. After Katrina, she moved to New Jersey and set up a studio in Union City N.J.
Maureen’s art has been informed by her “odd job” work history that has included stints as a house and fence painter, a fry cook and a house mother to the mentally retarded. She also has a history of social activism having worked with Amnesty International (the case of Gary Tyler) and as a private investigator with attorneys who represent men on death row and with men whose convictions are under serious re-examination. Maureen still works in that capacity.

For more information on the Azarian-McCullough Art Gallery exhibit or for viewing hours, call 845-398-4195.

For more information about the artist, visit her web page: http://mkelleherart.com/

Image: Hold Fast, Paint and engraving on wood, ©Maureen Kelleher 2004See More