Richard Killeen was born in Auckland in 1946 where he continues
to live and practice. In 1966, he graduated with a Diploma of Fine
Arts from Elam.
Killeen's work is most readily identified by the use of
'cut-outs', which abandon the traditional rectangular painting
support in favour of separate images presented independently of
each other; individual emblems painted or collaged on metal or
other materials and cut to shape. The 'cut-outs' works are sold in
boxes with no hanging instructions other than a small drilled hole,
so that when hung they fall at a particular angle decided upon by
the artist - this being the only formal control that Killeen
exercises
over the arrangement of his work. The aesthetic decisions
of hanging, arrangement and the sense of juxtaposition
that defines the work are left in the hands of the owner.
Killeen's earlier works involved a limited palette of colours to
enhance the repetitive nature of quasi-primitive symbols drawn from
readily recognisable shapes such as weapons, insects, animals and
fish.
His exploration of the deconstruction and decontextualisation of
language through sign and image has continued to engage the viewer
on several levels since his earliest works in this vein.