Richard John Killeen (born 1946) is a significant New Zealand painter, sculptor and digital artist.

Biography

Killeen was educated at the Elam School of Fine Arts, where his lecturers included Colin McCahon, before graduating in 1966. He has won a number of awards, including the QE2 Arts Fellowship, and has been the subject of several major exhibitions. He is particularly known for his arranged collections of aluminium 'cut outs' hung on walls, from 1978 onwards, and has continued arrangements of objects in this style. In the 2002 Queen's Birthday and Golden Jubilee Honours, he was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to painting.

Style

His early cut-outs reflected Killeen's "discontent with the compression caused by the four static points of the frame," and an answer was found in their "off-stretcher presentation." These are created from cardboard templates, which he uses to cut aluminium sheeting, lacquer, and paint.

Selected exhibitions

1967 1968 1969 1970 1972 1975 1976 1977 1979 1981 Richard Killeen Brooke/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch. The first of ten solo exhibitions Killeen would have with the gallery. 1982 1983 1984 1985 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 Headlands: Thinking Through New Zealand Art Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. 1995 1996 1998 1999 2000 2001 2003 2005 2005 2007 2010 2021 2024

Selected works