'Secondhand Embarrassment: Artworks Made to Be Forgotten'

The Global Studies Seminar presents “Secondhand Embarrassment: Artworks Made to Be Forgotten” by Denison University’s Assistant Professor of Studio Art Keith Allyn Spencer. 

The work of Spencer is like a cartoon of painting. Always exploring new relationships to material and his environment, Spencer tries to undermine any obvious technical abilities, processes, or rationale. Painting is the catalyst of his broader art practice to activating and intervening in public space. He seeks inspiration from a range of sources: home life, domestic objects, forms in nature, and engagement with culture. Allyn searches for ways to destabilize painting — preferring to consider painting as sculpture, as entertainment, as therapy, protest, prank, decoration, and even painting as non-painting. 

Born and raised in the Chihuahuan desert of West Texas, Keith currently resides with his family in central Ohio. He received his Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design (2011) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at El Paso (2003). Recent group exhibitions consist of Central Park Gallery (Los Angeles), Present Company (NYC), New Galerie at Yves Klein Archives (Paris), No Place Gallery (Columbus), and BigMedium (Austin). Recent solo shows include Mr.Distro (Philadelphia), Jelato Love (Spain), Fringe Projects (Miami), Pay Fauxn (NYC), Ditch Projects (Oregon), The Composing Rooms (Berlin), Welcome Screen (London), OFG.XXX (Dallas), Target (Indiana), and Domino’s Pizza (Rhode Island).