News

Jun 09, 2023

Séamus Kealy appointed new Oakville Galleries Executive Director

Award-winning gallery director and curator returns to Canada after steering one

Award-winning gallery director and curator returns to Canada after steering one of Europe's leading contemporary art institutions for almost a decade.

byOakville News

December 26, 2022

9:00 AM

Oakville Galleries

Seamus Kealy

Oakville Galleries appointed Séamus Kealy as the incoming Executive Director. Séamus is a dynamic museum and gallery director and curator with Canadian and international experience leading and transforming visual arts institutions.

"On behalf of the Oakville Galleries’ Board of Directors, we are thrilled to welcome Séamus Kealy, an inspiring curator and experienced executive director, who has worked with some of the most exciting visual artists in the world," said Alix Scott, President of the Oakville Galleries Board.

"We are looking forward to Seamus engaging with our Oakville communities as well as audiences and cultural creators from across Canada and beyond."

"I am deeply honoured to join the hard-working team and highly engaged board of Oakville Galleries at this time of change and to return to Canada after a significant time away," said Kealy.

"I can't wait to work with the board and team on plans for a new home as well as reimagining the institution's identity."

Séamus brings many years of experience in leading and transforming public art institutions and working with diverse communities. Since 2014, Séamus has worked as director of the Salzburger Kunstverein in Salzburg, one of central Europe's most innovative institutions for contemporary art.

During his nine-year tenure there, he greatly increased the activities, scale, budget, audience diversity and international profile of the Salzburger Kunstverein. He curated ten exhibitions annually while working with some of the world's most influential artists, including:

His thematic exhibitions included

In 2017, Séamus 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 2008 to 2013, he was director of The Model, Sligo, one of Ireland's most noted contemporary art centres, where he led a major redevelopment while presenting highly-acclaimed exhibitions by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Harun Farocki, Duncan Campbell, and Omer Fast, 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.

His experience in Canada and with Canadian artists is also of note. He 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 International Juror for Canada's prestigious Sobey Art Award.

His 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 his two degrees at the University of British Columbia.

Accessible, engaging, and forward-thinking—Oakville Galleries is located on Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat and the Haudenosaunee. Oakville Galleries is driven by a belief in the singular power of art and artists to deepen our understanding of ourselves and our communities and move us toward a better world.

The Galleries are a not-for-profit contemporary art museum engaging communities throughout Oakville and wider audiences regionally, nationally and internationally.

On April 3, 2023, Oakville Galleries will welcome Séamus Kealy to its team and communities.

December 26, 2022

9:00 AM