Oakville Galleries
Séamus Kealy
Earlier this month, the staff and board of Oakville Galleries welcomed Séamus Kealy to its team as executive director.
"On behalf of the Oakville Galleries' board of directors, we are thrilled to welcome Séamus as the new executive director of Oakville Galleries. Séamus has a dynamic and engaging leadership style which will resonate with all of the organization's stakeholders", says Alix Scott, Oakville Galleries' board chair.
"The Board looks forward to supporting Séamus as he begins the process of charting a compelling new vision for Oakville Galleries."
Kealy's academic artistic education includes studying fine arts (BFA) with a focus on painting as well as photography with Jeff Wall, and later art history: curatorial studies (MA), earning both of his two degrees at the University of British Columbia. Séamus brings many years of experience in leading and transforming public art institutions and working with diverse communities.
From 2008 to 2013, Kealy was director of The Model, Sligo, one of Ireland's most notable contemporary art centres, where he led a major redevelopment while presenting highly-acclaimed exhibitions by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Harun Farocki, Duncan Campbell, Omer Fast, and among many others. His leadership and fundraising abilities were instrumental to this major capital project during the most challenging period of Ireland's financial crisis.
In 2017, Kealy founded Sunset Kino, Austria's first and only outdoor avant-garde cinema, and in 2019, he commissioned, produced and presented Omer Fast's film Der Oylem ist a Goylem as part of a multiple-installation exhibition.
From 2014 to 2023, Kealy was director of the Salzburger Kunstverein in Salzburg, one of central Europe's most innovative institutions for contemporary art.
During his tenure, he greatly increased the activities, scale, budget, audience diversity and international profile of the Salzburger Kunstverein. Kealy curated 10 exhibitions annually, while working with some of the world's most influential artists, including Bani Abidi, Camille Henrot, Khalil Rabah, Megan Rooney, and many more.
Kealy's thematic exhibitions included Film as Muse, A Painter's Doubt, The People's Cinema, Excessive Beauty (Überschönheit) and Punctum, which was named the year's "Top Exhibition in Austria" by Austria's Profil magazine.
His experience in Canada and with Canadian artists is also of note. Kealy served as curator of the Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto from 2005 to 2008, where he established a vigorous and award-winning exhibition program, earning the 2007 Curatorial Writing Award from the Ontario Association of Art Galleries.
In 2015, he played a key role in a major European touring survey exhibition of Canadian artist Stan Douglas' large-scale photographs and films, which included stops at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin and Salzburger Kunstverein, as well as several other museums.
Kealy curated both shows at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin and Salzburger Kunstverein. Later in 2018, in one of his many professional jury roles, he was an international juror for Canada's prestigious Sobey Art Award.
"It's great to be back in Canada again. The warm welcome in Oakville has been especially wonderful." says Kealy, "Already I am in the thick of future planning, and we have an exciting program coming up in May. The long-term plans here are ambitious, and the board and I have been in intense dialogue since day one."
Kealy invites everyone to the "Artful Cocktails" event on Thursday, May 11 where they will be sponsored cocktails, drinks and catering. Kealy will be there to personally meet everyone for the first time. Tours of the exhibition Wolf Tone: A Many-Sided House will also be happening at the event. Tickets are $75.
To register for the event, visit the Oakville Galleries website or email Haleigh Eady at haleigh@oakvillegalleries.com
