4 October to 18 October 2018

Benedict Miller Keeley was born in Gisborne but has spent most of his life in Howick.  He recently changed his career path from teaching to focus on painting and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts from AUT in 2018.

This body of work responds to the phenomenon of chaos and the idea that chaos is a state of balance, rather than disorder.

Chaos lies at the midpoint of a spectrum. At one extreme there is complete randomness. At the other there is absolute order. Chaos unites the two and brings them into balance.

Keeley approaches his work with the phenomenon of chaos in mind.  Initially, forms and colours rise out of a spontaneous and instinctive process.  At some point, Keeley begins to introduce a sense of order, often in the form of carefully considered mark making or figurative elements.  When that state of balance between randomness and order is achieved, the work is finished.