Bruce Keyes Exhibition @ McKenna Museum

MCKENNA MUSEUM & ARTVOICES PRESENTS ‘SPIRIT OF NEW ORLEANS’ BY BRUCE KEYES
June 27 through July 11, 2009

NEW ORLEANS, June 17, 2009—McKenna Museum is pleased to announce a new exhibition of images from the recently released book "Spirit of New Orleans" by Bruce Keyes at 2003 Carondelet Street, New Orleans from June 27 through July 11, 2009.

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 27th 6 to 8pm

Bruce Keyes: “My focus is on the people of New Orleans, performers, spectators, their gestures, postures, joyful expressions and the like. Their body language and playful spirit is what I capture. The subtractive quality of the b&w images and how it portrays the stature and importance of the subject is what attracts me.”

Art Critic Arin Black: “It’s the sweet decay, the slow motion, the willingness to stop and let the joy seep in, that lets New Orleans take hold and not let go, and it’s present in every single image of “Spirit of New Orleans”.

Poet & Songwriter Ron Cuccia: This is not an exhibition about New Orleans, it is an exhibit of New Orleans. It comes from the heart’s eye of a native, true to the creative passion that runs through the veins like fire. Bruce Keyes captures that passion and our innocence, our sense of sacred, our mourning and our unmitigated, irrepressible joy. That’s what makes New Orleans important and that makes ‘Spirit of New Orleans’ important.”

Bruce Keyes, a native New Orleanian was born in 1950. Travels related to his Viet Nam era United States Navy service were the inspiration for his interest in photography. After years of assignment photography, he attended the Rochester Institute of Technology's School of Photographic Arts and Sciences for two years of intensive independent study. His first solo show entitled "Odyessy" was at the Noho Gallery in New York City and has been followed by numerous shows home and abroad.

‘Spirit of New Orleans’ a 30 year retrospective has been included in the (research) library archives of the New Orleans Museum of Art .

For more information on Bruce Keyes please contact Shantrelle Lewis at shantrelleplewis@gmail.com or call 504 586 7432. The Museum will be open Thursday through Saturday 11am to 4pm.
www.themckennamuseum.com