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Artist Exhibitions:
2003 The ART in Commercial
Art,4+ Decades Solo Exhibit,
Sarber's Montclair Gallery,
Oakland, CA
2002 Postcards from the
Underground, Digital
Counter-Culture Solo
retrospective, Calumet
Photographic, SF
2002 How Extraordinary that
the World Exists!, HELLO by
Aleksandra Mir, Group Show,
CCAC Gallery
2001 The Whole World is
Watching, ...
Further Information
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Artist Galleries:
http://kerouac.com (Beat
digital & silver prints for
sale)
http://www.emptymirrorbooks.com
/keenanprints.html (Beat
digital & silver prints for
sale)
http://www.nextmonet.com
(Gallery, Counter-Culture
archival silver prints for
sale)
Richard Goodall Gallery
(British Gallery,
Counter-Culture archival
silver prints for sale)...
Further Information
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Artist Reviews:
"Computer Magic" by Matthew
Leeds, .Info magazine
"Digital Photography" by
Mikkel Aaland with Rudolph
Burger, Random House
"MORRISON, A Feast of Friends"
by Frank Lisciandro, Warner
Books
"4-Man Show", Piedmont
Gallery, Oakland Tribune
"Phelan Awards Exhibit" by
Joan Murray, Artweek magazine
"Museum Presents Prize-Winning
Photographers" by Miriam
Dugan...
Further Information
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Collections:
David Amram
Joan Baez
Bancroft Library
Stewart Brand
David Burne
William Burroughs
California College of Arts and
Crafts
Carolyn Carr, curator The
National Portrait Gallery
Carolyn Cassady
City of San Francisco
Bruce Conner
Gregory Corso
Peter Coyote
Keir Dullea
Bob Dylan
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Robert Frank
Allen Ginsberg
Hell's Angels ...
Further Information
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Commissions:
Coming Soon!
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Artist Statement for Larry Keenan
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In 1965, California College of Arts and Crafts student, Larry Keenan was asked by his teacher, poet and playwright, Michael McClure if he would like to photograph a group of his friends. Asking McClure whom his friends were Keenan was amazed when he listed names that included Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Bruce Conner, Neal Cassady and Ken Kesey. Keenan had studied the works of these groundbreaking poets, writers and artists and recognized the significance of this opportunity.
Twenty-one years old, Keenan spent over a year photographing the Beats in their homes and with their family and friends. He began documenting the last days of the Beat Generation with a borrowed 35mm camera using mostly Tri-X film push processed with available light and no tripod. He cleverly made an enlarger from an old slide projector to print his work.
During this time, Larry was living at home and his parents (who didn't share his respect for the Beats) presented certain obstacles for him, but he continued to persevere. For instance, as he was leaving the house to photograph the McClure, Dylan and Ginsberg, North Beach image for Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde album cover, his parents determined he could only borrow the family car to drive to San Francisco after he mowed the lawn of their stately Alameda home. Keenan says, "The entire time I was mowing the lawn, with the loud power mower and gas smell, I was trying to center myself knowing I was about to document some very important events." On this day he shot The Last Gathering of Beat Poets and Artists at City Lights. Ironically, these two photographs are some of Keenan's most noted Beat images.
A former high school classmate of Larry's, Jim Morrison of The Doors, fostered his natural instinct of being able to distinguish talent at an early age. He was very aware of his good fortune being able to photograph the Beats under the auspices of McClure and Ginsberg. Keenan's innate understanding of the historical value of the images has provided the general public not only with a unique chronology and reportage of this era, but also with a timeless rendering of the spirit of the Beat poets and artists. Much of this work, shown at the Whitney Museum in New York, Walker Art Center of Minneapolis and the M.H. de Young Museum in San Francisco, in the exhibit Beat Culture and the New America: 1950-1965 and in the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery show Rebels: Beat Artists and Poets, are the icon images that represent these exhibitions.
Larry Keenan is a recipient of the prized Phelan Award for his fine art photography. He is an award winning advertising and corporate photographer who specializes in combining the traditional medium of photography with the contemporary digital platform. Larry's unique vision and style are his trademark that are clearly illustrated in his enduring fine art and commercial work of today.
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