For the past thirty years Tom Keough has painted in oil or worked in watercolor. Before that, he worked for over a decade in black and white making pen drawings or linoleum prints.
I started to paint in oils in response to the more immediate elements of the world close at hand, especially the urban environment around me and the beauty of the Catskills.
Over the years Tom exhibited regularly at galleries- most often
at the Hal Bromm Gallery in Tribeca. Various galleries in Brooklyn have hosted
Keough’s work lately, including Ossam Gallery and ShapeShifter in Park
Slope, and at various Brooklyn Public Libraries. Upstate New York venues-
like the Riverstone Art and Design Gallery in Haverstraw- have also hosted
shows. And he has had extensive exposure in museums and prestigious venues
near and far:
The Museum of Modern Art, the Moenche Haus Museum in Gussler, Germany. He
has shown in the United Nations, the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, the U.S. Senate
Subcommittee Chambers, St. Thomas Cathedral in Rockefeller Center, at the
Gallery of the Interchurch Center, the headquarters of the National Council
of Churches, the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, the Society of Illustrators,
and at other alternative art spaces in Manhattan like the Theater for the
New City and St. Peter's Church in the Citicorp Building. art is in the collection
of New York Life Insurance Company, the Brooklyn Hospital Center (formerly
in Prospect Park, Brooklyn), Brooklyn Woods, the Brooklyn Society for Ethical
Culture, and CenterLight Health Care in East Harlem.
Tom has published many portraits and comics of various kinds over the years, and was a regular contributor to World War 3 Illustrated. His various art has appeared in many periodicals and books (including textbooks).The Addison Ripley Gallery in Washington D.C. installed a large Hemlock print in the U.S. Embassy in Jamaica (West Indies), which has also been on display in several locations in New York City.
I paint landscapes - many at night. I focus on the relationships between nature and modern human creation. I show what can be discovered and appreciated close at hand. I present my views to neighbors and the world validating our communities. - Tom Keough, 2009