About Keith Howard
Education
- University of Colorado, Denver | Masters in Architecture
- Pomona College, Claremont, CA | Bachelor of Arts, Art History
Teaching Experience
Street Cred | 2017
Substitute teaching in Denver and Boulder public schools, my insights and skill as an artist commanded immediate attention when I covered art classes, from elementary through high school.
Sidewalk Art Theory | 2008–2013
Talking to street artists and writers in the Santa Fe Arts District, discussing composition, color harmony, why a piece succeeds (or not), both for graffiti and gallery art.
Neighborhood Art | 2005
Helped organize a show at Spark Gallery for neighborhood children and went door to door with fliers to bring in the community.
Visiting Artist | 2002
Installation show with 5th grade students at Stott Elementary in Arvada, creating a public framework for the drawings of the students, garnering a spot on the KUSA evening news.
ECE/Child Care Volunteer | 2004–2011
Served in my local church teaching and caring for children ranging in age from infant to 11 years. Activities included drawing, painting, sculpture and installation work.
Selected Shows
Seeing Stars | 2020
Following a grave personal loss, I undertook a campaign of abstract drawing that explored both spatial composition, and emotional ferocity/emphatic mark-making.
The Back Forty | 2017
Observing a formerly agricultural part of town savaged by suburban growth, I undertook a series of representational drawings to document a way of life that was, parcel by parcel, being plowed under.
Interstices | 2012
An installation show with painted walls and the flow of traffic directed by the positioning of 12 foot tubular forms, suspended inches off the floor. Subdued ambient lighting allowed for featured lights on the crucial features of the defining forms.
Resolution | 2003
Organized a collaborative show with Virginia Folkestad and Chandler Romeo. As a team we salvaged outmoded playground equipment from Denver Public Schools and created a striking sculptural installation at Ironton Studios and Gallery.
Lights in the Dark | 2001
A comprehensive installation show exploring light as presence. The gallery walls were clad entirely in cardboard, creating a housing for my abstract pastels.
Projects
Geology | 2020
I undertook a program of learning how to draw rocks. As an artist in the West, I’ve sought out the defining features of our landscape for study and learned the depiction of the geologic specifics of Chaco, Black Canyon, and Mesa Verde.
The Void | 2013
In a departure from my previous abstract work, involving a tapestry of marks covering the paper, I grappled with what I didn’t know how to do: situating isolated forms within an open field of negative space.
Campus Installation | 1993
During a semester at Diablo Valley College, I created a series of abstract drawings and designed and built an outdoor installation space to present the drawings to the student body. This was my first attempt at creating a body of work and designing an environment for its presentation.
Drawing Education | 1991
Working through Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain while in a tack room at Los Alamitos Quarter Horse Race Course in Cypress, California, I discovered the skill of seeing, and translating this onto paper through line and making of marks.
Gallery Seating
For many years I have utilized my art history degree by drawing the works of great artists and architects, on site. By utilizing the peculiar visual language of drawing, I access and document the creative process followed to create the piece I’m drawing.