Artist 334
Ken Kelleher
Pop Sculpture
Ken Kelleher (born 1968) is an American artist who specializes in creating out of this world sculptural installations that are inspired by whimsical architecture and pop culture.
He lives and works in Rehoboth in New Hampshire, USA.
Kelleher studied art in New York at the Alfred University under sculptors Glenn Zweygardt and William Parry. After college he worked at a Fine Art Foundry in Niverville, NY called Hudson Studio. This is where he did finishing work on cast bronze pieces by William Tucker and Anthony Caro, as well as other artists. Hudson Studio was in a shared space at the time with sculptor Jon Isherwood and is in close proximity to Triangle Workshop.
Kelleher became a Creative Director in Advertising and now twenty years later has returned to his studio practice full time. Bringing his experience from the commercial world of communicating through graphics his art packs powerful punches. He uses the unique combination of digital design, fine art and architecture.
Kelleher explains his fascination with digital sculpture, “I decided to have a go at learning 3D after seeing some other large-scale installation sculpture projects and feeling very inspired. I had a farm with an outhouse that I turned into my sculpture studio, but being one person on my own, I couldn’t fabricate the things I was imagining. Once I learned 3D, and saw that I could make things at any scale and place them in many types of environments, similar to how an architect does it, I was hooked. I began designing and making pieces every day.”
His perspective on material expanded rapidly since then, and he tells STIR, “Since getting back into sculpting my influences have greatly expanded to be more informal, multi-material, inspired by the likes of Richard Deacon, Phyllida Barlow, Tony Cragg, as well as Franz West, Martin Puryear, Jay Kelly, Mel Kendrick Thomas Kiesewetter and Misha Kahn.”
Kelleher’s message is directed more towards artists, as opposed to his audience. He wants practitioners to remember that there are always many routes to tackling a question, and expands on this, saying “don’t let yourself get in your own way, but rather put imagination first and try to imagine without boundaries. It’s very easy to put boundaries on what you can do. I let the creative process of exploration guide me. My message is that you don’t have to be stuck doing the same thing over and over, and you don’t have to be classified in any particular way as an artist. Instead, let what you are imagining guide you, and allow yourself to be inspired each time you sit down to work. Who knows where your new ideas will lead you?”
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