Breaking the Mold A transplant from Dublin, Ireland, O'Keeffe has worked as an art professor at Kent State University for more than 30 years. His sculptures have been exhibited in New York City, Los Angeles, Paris and Dublin. His work is part of the NEO Geo exhibit of geometric abstraction Nov. 21-April 24 at the Akron Art Museum. Material Presence Inspired by his late son's poetry, a distant silence features stacked rectangular blocks of translucent blue acrylic sheets and Plexiglas in geometric layers. "His poetry focused on living in the moment," says O'Keeffe. "These sculptures possess a material presence of being in the moment, because I don't plan the final product before I start working." In a Day's Work Most of O'Keeffe's work requires months of meticulous planning and model building before he begins sculpting. But for a distant silence, he completed each sculpture in a day, gluing together small acrylic sheets. "I had to limit the work to simple procedures," O'Keeffe says. Wave Functions The stacked rectangles of translucent oceanic blue evoke feelings of reflection. "The series imbues the blank sheets of Plexiglas with meaning despite its blankness," says O'Keeffe. "The sculptures are like paintings but also architectural." // Roxanna Coldiron
