Keith Perelli

b. 1968.

Keith Perelli’s figure-based narratives fuse illusory realism, abstraction and naturalism. His work most often focuses on the social, political, sexual and environmental proclivities of man. His fascination and research of figurative art, observational painting and biology imbue the work with moments of tangible clarity within an otherwise complex tapestry of linear drawing and his penchant for the abstract mark. Perelli renders his figures as though they were stripped, dissected and inextricably woven into environments of their own making. His figures dissolve into space sometimes rendering them limbless, thus compromising their stability while amplifying their vulnerabilities. He intentionally interrupts space with lines, flat shapes and the physicality of the collage materials to remind us of the surface as though it were a façade of our projected psyche.
The environments are perhaps just as telling of the mood and gesture of the figure as the subject itself. This duality, further adds to the ideas explored in his work that play more to presenting a narrative psychological dilemma than resolving one or being didactic. Perelli says, “One of the biggest challenges of my work is knowing when to edit, before I expose ...

1994 MFA, Painting and Sculpture, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
1991 BA, Painting and Printmaking, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
CURRENT POSITION
1998-Present Drawing and Painting Instructor, New Orleans Center for Creative Art, NOCCA

MUSEUM EXHIBITION
2015 Mobile Museum of Art, The Art and Design of Mardi Gras, Mobile, AL
2014 Paper, Mobile Museum of Art, Group Exhibition, Mobile, AL
2013 Mobile Museum of Art, Front and Center Exhibition Space, Three Artists, Mobile, AL
2012 Keith Perelli: A survey of Figurative Works, Alexandria Museum, Alexandria, LA
2007-08 New Orleans Museum of Art, “Tightrope,” on Promised Loan by Brian Sands, New Orleans, LA
ONE PERSON COLLEGE EXHIBITIONS
2014 Of Paint and Paper; A Survey of Monotype Collage Paintings by Keith Perelli, 2011-Present, Isaac Delgado Gallery, Delgado Community College, New Orleans Campus, New Orleans, LA
2013 Southeastern Louisiana University Contemporary Art Gallery, “Process, Print and Paint: A Survey of Work by Keith Perelli” Hammond, LA
ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2013 Keith Perelli, Works in Paint and Print. Gallery 308, Muncie, IN
2012 Mosquito Muerto, Large Scale Monotype Collages, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA 2011 Perforate, Monotypes and Paintings, Nau-haus, Houston, TX
2010 Empathy, Monotypes and Paintings, Nau-haus, Houston, TX
2009 Monotypes, d.o.c.s. Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2008 Return and Profile Series, d.o.c.s. Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2007 Return Series, Found Gallery, Lo...