Gallery featuring Catherine Kehoe’s oil paintings, works on paper

The Dorrance H. Hamilton Gallery has announced the opening of Catherine Kehoe’s exhibition “SHAPE | COLOR | LIGHT,” which features a selection of the artist’s oil paintings and works on paper from the past decade.

“SHAPE | COLOR | LIGHT” refers to Kehoe’s persistent study of light and its dynamic translation into color and shape. Visual acuity is central to her painting process. Through intense observation and precise paint handling, Kehoe recasts the still life and human figure as hard-edged networks of interlocking, painted planes.

The exhibit will be on display in the gallery through Wednesday, April 16. On Thursday, March 27, the campus community and the general public are invited to attend an opening reception and artist talk. The reception will run from 5-8 p.m. in the gallery, while the artist talk will be held from 6-7 p.m. in the DiStefano Lecture Hall.

Kehoe’s small panel paintings draw the viewer into a vibrant and exacting microcosm of her world. Each is a lively experiment in pictorial construction, a compressed space where representation and abstraction compete for supremacy.

By contrast, Kehoe’s drawings in ink or charcoal feature a geometric armature of intersecting line. They reflect a commitment to measuring and mapping that’s essential to her analytical methodology.

Born in Hartford, Conn., Kehoe received her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and MFA from the School of Visual Arts at Boston University. She teaches painting at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and has taught drawing at Boston University’s School of Visual Arts. Kehoe has also taught painting workshops at Art New England, the Fine Arts Work Center, the Washington Art Association, Cullowhee Mountain Arts and at Civita Castellana in Italy.

The gallery is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The gallery is closed on Mondays.