Ben McKeown
Ben McKeown (born 1976) is an Australian contemporary artist working across painting, sculpture, photography, and mixed media. Drawing on his Wirangu and Kaurna heritage, his practice explores history, memory, Country, and family history. He completed a practice-led PhD at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), University of Melbourne. His work is held in public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the State Library of Victoria, the City of Port Phillip Collection, Michigan State University, and the Durban Art Gallery.[1]
Early life and education
McKeown is a descendant of the Wirangu people of South Australia’s far West Coast and has maternal connections to the Hack family, early Quaker settlers of colonial South Australia; the family history ‘‘Chequered Lives’’ traces his descent from South Australian pioneer John Barton Hack.[2] He enrolled at the Victorian College of the Arts as a mature-age student in 2005, completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Visual Art (2007), a Master of Visual Art (2009), a Master of Fine Art (2012), and a practice-led PhD, ‘‘Intersections: Landscapes of Belonging’’.[3] He was valedictorian of the VCA’s 2012 graduating class.[4] In 2000, McKeown was named Mornington Peninsula Young Citizen of the Year, and was a semi-finalist for Young Australian of the Year in 2001 and 2002.[5]
Career
In 1999, McKeown collaborated with artist William Kelly on ‘‘Journeys and Destinations’’, representing Australia in the United Nations 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights International Print Portfolio. The portfolio was launched at the Durban Art Gallery, South Africa, with a foreword by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and an address by the 14th Dalai Lama, and later toured to the United Nations Headquarters, New York; the collaboration was covered by the South African ‘‘Mail & Guardian’’, and the print was reproduced on the cover of the Spanish journal ‘‘Tiempo de Paz’’ in 2006.[6] The following year, his work was included in ‘‘Art Towards Reconciliation’’, an international touring print exhibition in Gernika-Lumo, Basque country, Spain, alongside Nobel laureate Günter Grass and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Nick Ut.[7] In 2007, the State Library of Victoria acquired McKeown’s work ‘‘Streetscape – Clifton Hill’’, making him the first contemporary First Nations artist collected by the library.[8] In 2011, he won the Victorian Indigenous Art Award (Deadly Award) for his photographic work "untitled";[9] the State Library of Victoria subsequently commissioned the Australian Tapestry Workshop to weave his design ‘‘Spring Street End’’ for permanent display, with the workshop mixing a new colour named “Ben McKeown blue.”[10] The tapestry was discussed by TheCollector,[11] and the Australian Tapestry Workshop’s subsequent State Library commission, ‘‘Sorry’’ by Juan Davila, was designed to complement it.[12] McKeown’s painting ‘‘44 Degrees I’ll Have a Long Black Please’’ (2009) featured in the ABC documentary ‘‘Artscape: Landscape of the Wynne’’, directed by Klaus Toft, which followed McKeown and fellow painters Geoff Dyer, Graham Fransella, and Kate Shaw as each attempted to win the Wynne Prize.[13] The painting was later used as the cover of ‘‘The Age of Entitlement’’ (2015) by Melbourne band The Basics, recorded at Abbey Road Studios.[14] In 2014, McKeown was nominated by artist Jon Cattapan for ‘‘The Land and Its Psyche’’, an exhibition drawn from the Macquarie Group Collection, and received the Nick Waterlow OAM Highly Commended Award in the Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize.[15] McKeown appeared in Mark Street’s documentary ‘‘Can Art Stop a Bullet: William Kelly’s Big Picture’’ (2020), which also featured philosopher A. C. Grayling and actor Martin Sheen.[16] A companion book of the same name (F-Reel Films, 2021) included a chapter, “The Indigenous Effect,” featuring McKeown alongside art historians Ian McLean and Sasha Grishin.[17] Street’s subsequent documentary ‘‘Dig Deeper’’ (2023) profiled McKeown’s practice alongside artists Blak Douglas, Maree Clarke, and Penny Evans, premiering at the Palace Cinema, Byron Bay, before screening at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival.[18] McKeown co-illustrated, with William Kelly, ‘‘Cloud Climbers’’ (Palaver Press, 2021), reviewed in ‘‘Disarming Times’’.[19] In 2023, he was commissioned by The Australian Ballet to write “Ancestral Energies” for the programme accompanying ‘‘Identity’’ at the Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre Melbourne.[20]
‘‘I Wonder!’’
The painting and screenprint ‘‘I Wonder!’’ has recurred throughout McKeown’s practice for more than two decades. An early version was reproduced in ‘‘Art and Humanist Ideals’’ (Macmillan Art Publishing, 2003), acknowledging UNESCO, the Arts Council of England, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York,[21] The work later became the genesis of Mark Street’s documentary ‘‘Dig Deeper’’ (2023).[22]
Reception
Writing in ‘‘Artlink’’ in 2023, editor Una Rey situated McKeown’s photographic work ‘‘Untitled’’ (2011) within a lineage of confessional and identity-based photography, comparing it to Nan Goldin, Destiny Deacon, and Christian Thompson, and identified his return to Country on the Eyre Peninsula as a significant development in his practice and doctoral research.[23] In ‘‘Dig Deeper’’, critic Daniel Browning, who had earlier profiled McKeown for ‘‘Artlink’’ in 2011, described his urban streetscapes as a distinctive conceptual achievement, saying no other artist had combined a cartographic, bird’s-eye view of Country with the urban landscape in the same way.[24] Reviewing ‘‘Just Can’t Get Enough’’ in ‘‘The Age’’, critic Robert Nelson discussed the exhibition’s title, its use of a fragment of the lyric from the song “I Just Can’t Get Enough,” and Troy-Anthony Baylis’s knitted sculptural works shown within it, naming McKeown as curator.[25]
Curatorial work
From 2008 to 2009, McKeown was Assistant Curator at Linden Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne, where he curated ‘‘Just Can’t Get Enough’’.[26] In 2010, he curated ‘‘20 Years: Bold. Black. Brilliant.’’, a retrospective marking the 20th anniversary of the Ilbijerri Theatre Company at Melbourne Museum, with a catalogue essay alongside contributions from Rachael Maza Long and Wesley Enoch.[27]
Collections
McKeown’s work is held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, the State Library of Victoria, the City of Port Phillip Collection, Michigan State University, the Durban Art Gallery, the Archive of Humanist Art, the Australian Print Workshop Archive, the Larry Rawling Print Workshop Archive, and United Nations collections in New York and Geneva, among others.[28]
Publications
McKeown, Ben. “Ancestral Energies.” In ‘‘Identity’’ (programme). The Australian Ballet, 2023. ∙ McKeown, Ben, and William Kelly (illustrations). ‘‘Cloud Climbers: Declarations through Images and Words for a Just and Ecologically Sustainable Peace’’. Edited by Anne Elvey. Melbourne: Palaver Press, 2021.
Awards
| Year | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Mornington Peninsula Young Citizen of the Year | Winner |
| 2001, 2002 | Young Australian of the Year | Semi-finalist |
| 2005 | Lin Onus Award, Victorian Indigenous Art Award | Finalist |
| 2006 | Trevor Nicholls Award, Friends of the VCA | Winner |
| 2007 | Athenaeum Club Visual Arts Award | Finalist |
| 2009 | Victorian Indigenous Art Award (Deadly Award) | Commended |
| 2011 | Victorian Indigenous Art Award (Deadly Award) | Winner |
| 2013 | Bowness Photography Prize | Finalist |
| 2014 | Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize (Nick Waterlow OAM Highly Commended Award) | Highly Commended |
References
- ↑ Macquarie Group Collection, ‘‘The Land and Its Psyche’’ (exhibition catalogue), 2014; ‘‘Berradiskidetzerako Artea / Arte Hacia la Reconciliación / Art Towards Reconciliation’’ (exhibition catalogue), Gernika-Lumo, 2000
- ↑ Mathews, I. H., with Durrant, C., ‘‘Chequered Lives: John Barton Hack and Stephen Hack and the Early Days of South Australia’’, Wakefield Press, 2013
- ↑ Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art, “Biography – Ben McKeown,” https://kallirolfecontemporaryart.com/artists/ben-mckeown/biography.html
- ↑ McKeown, B., valedictory address, Victorian College of the Arts graduation ceremony, 2011
- ↑ Walking the Pathways to Peace, “Ben McKeown,” https://walkingthepathwaystopeace.com/ben-mckeown/
- ↑ “Australians and Reconciliation Promoted in United Nations/Human Rights Print Portfolio” (press release), 1999; Sudheim, A., “Printing the Bill,” ‘‘Mail & Guardian’’, 17–22 December 1999; ‘‘Tiempo de Paz’’, No. 80, Primavera 2006, Movimiento por la Paz, el Desarme y la Libertad, Madrid
- ↑ ’‘Berradiskidetzerako Artea / Arte Hacia la Reconciliación / Art Towards Reconciliation’’ (exhibition catalogue), Gernika-Lumo, 2000
- ↑ State Library Victoria, “Streetscape - Clifton Hill [art original] / Ben McKeown,” find.slv.vic.gov.au, PCLT 1328
- ↑ Jackson, A (March,12, 2011). "The Sydney Morning Herald". Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help); Check date values in:|date=(help) - ↑ Murphy, G., “Transformation into tapestry,” ‘‘Voice’’ (University of Melbourne), Vol. 7, No. 5, 5 June – 10 July 2011
- ↑ TheCollector, “Understanding Post-War Australian History in 3 Artworks,” https://www.thecollector.com/post-war-australia-history-artworks/
- ↑ “On the Looms,” ‘‘At the Workshop’’, Issue 29, Australian Tapestry Workshop, September 2013
- ↑ ’‘Artscape: Landscape of the Wynne’’, ABC TV, directed by Klaus Toft, 2009
- ↑ The Basics, ‘‘The Age of Entitlement’’ (Bandcamp), https://thebasics.bandcamp.com/album/the-age-of-entitlement-2
- ↑ Macquarie Group Collection, ‘‘The Land and Its Psyche’’ (exhibition catalogue), 2014
- ↑ IMDb, “Can Art Stop a Bullet: William Kelly’s Big Picture (2020),” https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10098048/
- ↑ Street, M., and Cantwell, T., ‘‘Can Art Stop a Bullet?’’, F-Reel Films, 2021, ISBN 978-1-922252-35-7
- ↑ “Dig Deeper,” FilmInk, https://www.filmink.com.au/reviews/dig-deeper/; Roberts-Field, S., “Digging into family,” AUS, 2023
- ↑ Kerr, H., “Cloud Climbers,” ‘‘Disarming Times’’, Vol. 46, No. 3, September 2021, Pax Christi Australia
- ↑ McKeown, B., “Ancestral Energies,” in ‘‘Identity’’ (programme), The Australian Ballet, 2023
- ↑ Kelly, W. (ed.), ‘‘Art and Humanist Ideals: Contemporary Perspectives’’, Macmillan Art Publishing, 2003, ISBN 1-876832-25-8
- ↑ Street, M., “Historical injustice, identity and urban art,” Cinema Australia, 18 June 2023, https://cinemaaustralia.com.au/2023/06/18/historical-injustice-identity-and-urban-art-mark-street-writes-about-his-new-documentary-dig-deeper/
- ↑ Rey, U., “Ben McKeown and the films of Mark Street,” ‘‘Artlink’’, Issue 43:3, Summer 2023
- ↑ Browning, D., quoted in ‘‘Dig Deeper’’, directed by Mark Street, produced by Fiona Cochrane, 2023
- ↑ Nelson, R., “Indigenous works of hope,” ‘‘The Age’’, 2009
- ↑ Nelson, R., “Indigenous works of hope,” ‘‘The Age’’, 2009
- ↑ ’‘20 Years: Bold. Black. Brilliant. Ilbijerri Theatre Company: A retrospective’’ (exhibition catalogue), Melbourne Museum, 2010
- ↑ Alcaston Gallery, “Ben McKeown,” https://www.alcastongallery.com.au/artist/read/1426-ben-mckeown
- ↑ Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art, “Biography – Ben McKeown,” https://kallirolfecontemporaryart.com/artists/ben-mckeown/biography.html; Macquarie Group Collection, ‘‘The Land and Its Psyche’’ (exhibition catalogue), 2014
External links
∙ Ben McKeown at Alcaston Gallery
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