Ken Greenleaf

Woolywag (2021)

An artist whose work is embedded in a philosophical and theoretical framework, Ken Greenleaf is a committed modernist, working in the minimalist tradition. In recent years, his emphasis has been on creating streamlined paintings on shaped supports and paper collages, in which he continues the engagement with relations between shapes and materials that has been the central focus of his art. While comprised of geometric forms, Greenleaf’s art has a freeform aspect, forcing us to mentally organize what we’re seeing into “ideas.” He perceives the edges of his shaped surfaces, the color of his raw canvases, and the borders of his painted areas as “direct essays in understanding how we apprehend what we see and how we recognize what is real.” The tension between flatness and the feeling of and desire for illusion in Greenleaf’s art brings us to a place between raw sensation and the conceptual, which is ultimately a metaphysical one. ddrt, enriching the way shapes are seen. By jettisoning “narrative, rhetoric, and illusion,” Greenleaf strives to go directly to the nature of art.

Greenleaf has participated in a number of exhibitions, including Charcoal!, held at the Schick Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, in 2013; The Art of Collage, held at the Art Gallery, University of New England, Portland, Maine, in 2014; and Intercept, a solo show held at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, Maine, in 2012. Greenleaf’s work is in the collections of many museums and public collections, including Bates College, Lewiston, Maine; Colby College, Waterville, Maine; the Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, Maine; the Indianapolis Museum of Art; the Lannah Foundation, Boca Raton, Florida; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; the Portland Museum of Art, Maine; the Round Top Center for the Arts, Damariscotta, Maine; the Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Kansas; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

  • 2021 Berry Campbell, New York, NY

  • 2014 Berry Campbell, New York, NY 

  • 2012 “Intercept” Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME

  • 2011 “Drawing the Line” June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME

  • 2010  Caldbeck Gallery, Rockland, ME

  • 2009  “Charcoal Drawings”, Gold/Smith Gallery, Boothbay Harbor, ME

  • 1994  O’Farrell Gallery, Brunswick, Me

  • 1992  Gleason Fine Art, Boothbay Harbor, ME
    Stark Gallery, New York, NY

  • 1990 Stark Gallery, New York, NY

  • 1989 John Davis Gallery, New York, NY

  • 1987  John Davis Gallery, New York, NY

  • 1985  Sculptor’s Guild Outdoors, Houston and Broadway, New York, NY

  • 1983   “Monumental Sculpture Series,” Harry Lebau Jewish Center, Union, New Jersey, NJ

  • 1981  Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY

  • 1980  Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY

  • Barridoff Gallery, Portland, ME

  • 1978 Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY

    B.R. Kornblatt Gallery, Baltimore, MD

  • 1976 Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY

  • 1974 Tibor de Nagy GaIlery. New York, NY

  • 1973 Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY
    Walter Kelly Gallery, Chicago, IL
    LoGiudice Gallery, New York, NY

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

  • Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

  • Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Texas

  • Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine

  • Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, Maine

  • Bates College, Lewiston, Maine

  • Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas

  • Lannan Foundation, Boca Raton, Florida

  • Sidney Lewis, Richmond, Virginia

  • Smith-Gilbert Gardens, Kennesaw, Georgia

  • Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

  • 2019 Corey Daniels Gallery, Wells, ME
    Greenhut Galleries, Portland, ME

  • 2018 corey Daniels Gallery, Wells, ME

  • 2016 Group Show, Berry Campbell Gallery, NY, curated by Noah Becker

  • 2015 “You Can’t Get There From Here” Biennial, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME

  • 2014 “The Art of Collage” Art Gallery, University of New England, Portland, ME

  • 2013 “Charcoal!” Schick Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY

  • 2012 [=] Ken Greenleaf, Serge Momot and Constantin Rudeshko, Bottega Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine
    Caldbeck Gallery, Rockland, ME
    Lucy Mink, John Bonner and Ken Greenleaf, McGowan Fine Art, Concord, NH
    National Academy Annual Exhibition, New York, NY

  • Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, NY

  • 2011  “Works on Paper” Danese Gallery, New York, NY
    Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
    Armory show, New York

  • 2009  Aucocisco Gallery, Portland, Maine, with Richard Van Buren and Scott Davis

    “Over Under” Annual Invitational Show, Greenhut Galleries, Portland, Me

  • 1995   “Plans and Elevations,” with Maggi Brown, Main Gallery, University of Rhode Island

  • 1994    Recent Acquisitions. Edwin A. M. Ulrich Museum. Wichita State University, Wichita, Ks
     “Original Place,” with Dozier Bell, Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME

  • 1993 Southern Vermont Art Center, Manchester, VT
     Inaugural Exhibition, Gleason Fine Art, Portland, ME

  • 1992 “Contemporary Sculpture at Chesterwood, Stockbridge, MA, catalog (illus.)

  • 1991 “Beyond Geometry”, Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME

  • 1990  Opening Invitational, Stark Gallery, NY

  • 1988 “Ten Americans” Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, catalog (illus.) 

  • 1988 “Daisy Craddock and Ken Greenleaf,” John Davis Gallery, New York, NY

  • 1987  John Davis Gallery, New York, NY

  • 1986  Schulman Sculpture Park, White Plains, New York, NY

  • 1985 “Made in the USA,” Modern Art Consultants, curated by Phyllis Tuchman, New York, NY

    1983   “A Century of Modern Sculpture, Museum of Fine Art, Houston, TX 

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