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.[2] 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.[3]
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."[4] These are created from cardboard templates, which he uses to cut aluminium sheeting, lacquer, and paint.[4][1]
Selected exhibitions
1967
The Group Show 68 Christchurch, Durham St. Art Gallery. Killeen had five works in the exhibition. (group)[5] and two works Soldier and Microphone Man in the 1968 Group Show.[6]
Richard Killeen: Recent PaintingsPeter McLeavey Gallery (later McLeavey Gallery), Wellington. Killeen’s first solo exhibition with Peter McLeavey will be the first of fifty held up to 2024.[10]
1976
New Zealand Drawing 1976 Auckland City Art Gallery. (group)[11]
1977
Young Contemporaries Auckland City Art Gallery. (group)[12] Killeen was represented with Frog Shooter[13] a painting purchased at the time of the exhibition by the Auckland Art Gallery.
1979
Richard KilleenPeter Webb Galleries, Auckland. From 1979 to 1981 Killeen would have 14 exhibitions with Peter Webb.[14]
1981
Richard KilleenBrooke/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch. The first of ten solo exhibitions Killeen would have with the gallery.[15]
1982
Artist Project No.1. Chance and Inevitability Auckland City Art Gallery. Curator of the project Alexa Johnston explained in the catalogue how Killeen allowed people attending the projects opening were allowed to take one of the cut-out pieces and hang them anywhere they chose on the wall. The final work she noted, ‘took shape gradually with the involvement of a large number of people'.[16]
Chance and Inevitability Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch. The installation, also shown at the Peter McLeavey Gallery in Wellington followed the same format as the Auckland exhibition the previous year.[18]
New Image, Aspects of Recent N.Z. Art Auckland City Art Gallery. (group)[19]
The Grid, Lattice and Network, Aspects of Recent N.Z. Art Auckland City Art Gallery. (group)[20]
Origins originality & beyond: the Sixth Biennale of Sydney Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. (group) The exhibition was curated by Nick Waterlow.[21]
Content/Context National Gallery, Wellington. (group)[22]
A Very Peculiar practice, Aspects of Recent New Zealand Painting City Art Gallery, Wellington. (group)[28]
1996
The Dreaming of Gordon Walters[29]Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland.
1998
Dream Collectors, One Hundred Years of Art in New Zealand Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington. (group) The exhibition was curated by Ian Wedde and John Walsh.[30]
1999
Stories We Tell Ourselves, The Paintings of Richard Killeen Auckland Art Gallery. A touring survey of Killeen’s work to-date curated by Francis Pound.[31]
2000
Wonderlust Ivan Anthony Gallery, Auckland.
2001
Prospect 2001: New Art New Zealand City Gallery, Wellington. (group)[32]
^ abMuseum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (2005). Treasures from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Te Papa Press. p. 72. ISBN1-877385-12-3.
^Hanfling, Edward, ed. (2003). Vuletic and his circle: the Gus Fisher Gallery, the University of Auckland, 10.05. - 28.06.2003. Auckland. ISBN978-0-473-09528-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Trevelyan, Jill (2013). Peter McLeavey: the life and times of a New Zealand art dealer. Wellington, New Zealand: Te Papa Press. ISBN978-0-9876688-4-4.
^Pound, Francis (1999). Stories we tell ourselves: the paintings of Richard Killeen (1st publ ed.). Auckland: Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki [u.a.] ISBN978-1-86953-431-8.
^Art Gallery of New South Wales, ed. (1986). Origins originality + beyond: 16 May-6 July 1986, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery Road, Sydney, PIER 2/3 Walsh Bay, Sydney. Sydney, N.S.W., Australia: Sixth Biennale of Sydney. ISBN978-0-9596619-5-8.
^Content / Context. Wellington: National Art Gallery. 1986. pp. 50–51.
^Bell, Leonard (Spring 1988). "NZXI: A Commentary". Art New Zealand (48).
^Pound, Francis; Killeen, Richard (1990). Sampler 1967-1990. Workshop Press.
^Whiting, Cliff; Murphy, Bernice; McCormack, John; Sotheran, Cheryll, eds. (1992). Headlands: Thinking through New Zealand Art. Sydney: The Museum of contemporary Art [u.a.] ISBN978-1-875632-04-6.
^Wedde, Ian; Walsh, John; Johnston, Alexa; Museum of New Zealand; Auckland Art Gallery, eds. (1998). Dream collectors: one hundred years of art in New Zealand. Wellington [N.Z.]: Te Papa Press. ISBN978-0-909010-48-5.
^Pound, Francis; Killeen, Richard (1999). Stories we tell ourselves: the paintings of Richard Killeen. Auckland, N.Z: David Bateman. ISBN978-1-86953-431-8.
