Elusive artist takes up residence in gallery

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This article was published 01/11/2019 (2181 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A mysterious creature is on the loose in an Exchange District art gallery, and — if you’re lucky — you might just catch a glimpse of him.

Little is known about “k. steele,” an elusive visual artist who has set up shop in aceartinc.’s Flux Gallery after being drawn to the space by an enticing humming noise emanating from the back of the McDermot Avenue building.

His exhibit i live in here opened on Oct. 25 and since then he has been seen only a handful of times. There are whispers he will make another appearance soon, though.

Encountering “k. steele” in person, my initial observations were that he was small of stature and that his skin was curiously soft.

“It’s leaking something,” he explains. “Having a physical form is difficult sometimes.”

As odd as his appearance is, his conversational style is even more puzzling.

“I live here in Flux Gallery,” he says, when asked to talk about himself. “It is cold sometimes and there is a bird that bites off bits of my skin and hides them. But it’s very fun here and people often put dirt on me. I like to talk about the bird that bit my wife and she died, and also about how wet my hands are right now.”

Before I could ask him for an explanation about his dead wife and the murderous bird, “k. steele” returned to his hiding place… but left behind someone else in his place.

Keegan Steele is the artist behind “k. steele.” Although an experienced performer — Steele is a founding member of the Winnipeg band Yes We Mystic — he still feels nervous in this new medium of visual and performance art.

“I’ve never felt comfortable calling myself an artist,” Steele says. “I often feel very anxious and down on myself when I’m at art events. A lot of people my age are doing great things in the scene and I’m envious of them because they seem to fit right in, whereas I’m over here feeling like some kind of doodling gremlin.”

The exhibit comprises visual and performance art, in the form of “k. steele.” While “k. steele” is not always present in the gallery, Steele’s doodles are always on display.

“The drawings form a visual journal that tells a story of anxiety, personal stagnation and insecurity,” Steele says, “while also presenting a challenging examination of the artist as a romantic figure. I think all artists tend to get mythologized and romanticized no matter how much we try and separate the person from the work. I wanted to take the archetype and reverse it.”

“I always imagine people crowding around and fawning over an artist at their openings. I wanted to flip that and make the artist someone who everybody would want to be as far away from as possible.”

Although “k. steele” can seem grotesque and perhaps even repulsive, it’s worth taking a closer look at his drawings, which are done in pencil on letter-sized sheets of paper.

“It’s been a fun exercise to try and create drawings while inhabiting the mindset of a fictional character,” Steele says. “It’s a really interesting process. I find myself doing stuff I’d never normally do. He’s sloppy, he has an unsteady hand, he’s unsure of himself, he erases a lot and he doesn’t use colour.”

“He tries to draw from his own personal experiences but has difficulty expressing his emotions in a human way because he has almost no human contact.”

After the preliminary sketch is complete, Steele traces over the pencil with a Pentel Sign Pen.

All the drawings are for sale on a donation basis and any drawing purchased will be replaced, which means the exhibit constantly evolves… just like the character of “k. steele” and even Steele himself.

“‘K. steele’ is all of my anxieties and doubts externalized and heavily exaggerated,” Steele explains. “The result is this snivelling little creature that’s supposed to inspire pathos and disgust.

“I’ve never imagined myself as being glamorous or worthy of praise, so I decided to fully lean into those anxieties as a form of weird catharsis and play this character.”

Though i live in here marks Steele’s first indoor solo exhibition, this is the third time he has performed as “k. steele.”

“The first time was when I delivered a PechaKucha (storytelling) talk about the relationship between art and comedy,” he says. “In the speech, my character talks about how he lives in the Park Theatre, where the event was being held. I plucked that element out as something to focus on when I decided to pitch a show to Flux Gallery.”

While Steele did pitch the idea to Flux Gallery, within the mythology of the exhibit “k. steele” is merely a politely tolerated squatter.

Still, everyone seems happy to have him there.

“The exhibit features playful drawings accompanied by a performance of the artist embodying the ‘k. steele’ character,” says Tayler Buss, an aceartinc. representative. “The gallery space turns into the intimate dwelling of this character with the drawings displayed on the walls.”

If you’re hoping for a “k. steele” encounter, word on the street is that he will make a rare appearance at Flux Gallery in aceartinc., tonight from 7 to 10 p.m. as a part of First Fridays in the Exchange.

Frances.Koncan@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @franceskoncan