Vincent Keele is a Seattle-based artist – His work uses bold colorful and rhythmic movements to create abstract expressionist artworks and symbolic figurative works. He uses various fields from traditional to contemporary to portray his visual narratives. Keele’s work has been showcased in numerous countries around the world.
Keele was born in Los Angeles, California. His passion for art began very early. His mother, Mary M. Scott, an alumni of the Art Institute of Chicago passed on to him her complete course of books. With these materials, he learned to see and produce art in a wide variety of methods.
As both a painter and a curator, Keele has organized exhibitions such as Predators and Women, The Black Panther Art and Fashion Show, An Evening with Kathleen Cleaver, and Abstracted View. His own work has evolved to expressionism, primarily in acrylic on canvas. His paintings have been exhibited in several respected Seattle arts institutions such as the Center of Contemporary Art (CoCA) and the Northwest African American Museum (NAAM), Schack Art Center, the Northwest Art Museum and the City of Shoreline, and all the main art fairs.
Keele benefited from great mentors along the way. He is a self taught artist with traditional education from Platt College where he studied Graphic Arts and Drafting. Before his love of acrylic paint, the complexity of pen and ink held a special place in his heart. Working primarily in acrylic on canvas, Keele creates paintings with the goal of retelling history and bringing back special people and places that have been misplaced, forgotten or unknown.
His figurative paintings employ skilled brushwork and a bold palette, often in compelling environments which invite the viewer to explore the subject’s surroundings for further insight and clues into it’s narrative. He often references Black history, African patterns and design, contemporary Black life; occasionally drawing upon his knowledge of European art traditions.
His figurative paintings employ skilled brushwork and a bold palette, often in compelling environments which invite the viewer to explore the subject’s surroundings for further insight and clues into it’s narrative. He often references Black history, African patterns and design, contemporary Black life; occasionally drawing upon his knowledge of European art traditions.
- Oregon State University
- Fox TV Show – Our Kind of People
- City of Shoreline
- The National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center
- Puyallup Watershed
- Junebaby Restaurant – Beard Award Chef
