Sam Keller

SittingRoom is pleased to kick off the fall season with Keller & Keller, a collaborative exhibition between artist Sam Keller (b. 1986, Brooklyn, NY, lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.), and his late uncle & self-taught artist Richard Keller (b. 1938, New Rochelle, NY., d. 1994, Paris, Fr.).

Richard Keller was a self-taught artist working in found object sculpture, collage, painting and drawing. He produced art compulsively and prolifically for himself and his friends, while supporting himself by teaching linguistics and live translation at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Although Richard’s life and career were cut short in 1994 during the early stages of the AIDS epidemic, the presence of Richard’s work and shared familial anecdotes proved influential in Sam’s development as a working contemporary artist.

Keller & Keller explores an unconventional collaboration between Richard and Sam.

After discovering a portfolio containing hundreds of Richard’s intricate magazine and newspaper cut-outs for collages never realized, Sam found an opportunity to explore the inextricable connection between them through a new, yet-to-be-seen body of work of collages.

In addition to collages, Sam is presenting a collection of Richard’s brooches crafted from detritus from the streets of Paris alongside a new series of Swarovski-encrusted Can artworks– Sam’s most recognizable work.

Titled as a tongue-in-cheek reference to Beller & Keller, a corporate law firm run by Sam's father / Richard's brother in the 90's & 2000's, Keller & Keller is located just blocks from the Lower East Side tenement apartments their ancestors immigrated to in the early 1880's.

This exhibition marks the artist's continued exploration of Richard's life and work, first realized as the co-founder of RK Projects, a nomadic curatorial platform based in Providence, RI operating from 2010-2014.