Bio

Jeff Key

My work over the past thirty plus years as a sculptor, writer and digital media artist has focused on theories of evolution with allegorical and metaphorical references to the past, present and future.  My visual and written work adheres to an underlying structure of anthropological investigation focusing on sociology, political and physical science as well as psychology and theology. 

I hope that my work will inspire a viewer to ask their own questions and look at the world with a new set of parameters.  I see my work not as a body of definable theories but as a vessel of suppositions, to be pondered and chewed with a grain of salt and a cup of wonder.

Education

B. F. A. University of California, Berkeley, CA         1970

M. F. A.  San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA 1972

Employment

Founder/Executive Director: Media Enterprise Alliance (MEA/YouthBeat)      2008-2016

(Provides low-income Oakland youth the opportunity to study digital media)

• MEA/YouthBeat Board Member/Consultant                     2016-present

Selected One-Person Exhibitions

Schermeister Winery, Glen Ellen, CA         2021

Life Vessels, Sculpturesite Gallery, Glen Ellen, CA 2020

Wood Sculpture, 525 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 2003

Sculpture, 455 Market Street, San Francisco, CA         2002

Nortel Communications, Santa Clara, CA         2001

Charleston Heights Art Center, City of Las Vegas Gallery, Las Vegas, NV 1997

             

Priebe Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, WI         1994

Paxon Gallery, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 1993

Joanne Chappell Gallery, San Francisco, CA         1992

 

Walker & Walker Gallery, Santa Monica ,CA         1991

University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA                 1989

               

Janet Steinberg Gallery, San Francisco, CA         1986

Selected Group Exhibitions

Petaluma Art Center—“Laws of Nature,” (Curated by Vicky Kumpfer), Petaluma, CA.         2023 

Gallery Route One—“Seen and Imagined,” (Curated by Jeremy Morgan)                             2023

Point Reyes Station, California                                                                                                                                                        

Commonwealth Club of California, “Art Inspired by Travel,” (Curated by Robert Melton,       2022

San Francisco, CA

Artworks Downtown, “Contemporary Botanicals” (Curated by Vanessa Indies),                2022

San Rafael, CA 

Sanchez Art Center, “2022 Left Coast Annual” (Curated by Jeff Nathanson), Pacifica, CA 2022

“Beauty or Truth?” Artworks Downtown, San Rafael, CA;                 2021

(Juror: Chandra Cerrito)

Ruth Bancroft Gardens—“Sculpture in the Garden” Walnut Creek, CA                                  2021

            

San Francisco Art Institute, Diego Rivera Gallery— ECHOES: From There to Here—        2019

Alumni Exhibition (curated by Tim Berry & Jeremy Morgan)     San Francisco, CA

        

GearBox Gallery—Art + Movement—(Curated by Maria Porges) Oakland, CA         2019

Sculpture Site Gallery—Online Show— Sculpture Now: Works by Pacific         2019

Rim Sculptors (curated by Brigitte Micmacker)   

Gallery Route One—“If I Only Had Time to Tell You,” (Curated by M. Louise Stanley)         2019

Point Reyes Station, California

Peninsula Museum, Sculpture Now: Works by Pacific Rim Sculptors                 2018

(curated by Brigitte Micmacker)   Burlingame, CA

111 Minna Gallery—Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series 2018 Competition,         2018

San Francisco, CA

Photo Place Gallery—“Water” (curated by Ann Jastrab),  Middlebury,  Vermont         2018

Light Space & Time Online Gallery, “Nature Photography,”  Jupiter, Florida         2018

Lafayette Library, Purchase Award (curated by the Oakland Museum)                 2010

Lafayette, California

16^th Annual Sculpture in the Garden Exhibit, The Ruth Bancroft Garden         2010

Walnut Creek, CA

Fiber Based Art, Olive Hyde Art Gallery,  Fremont, CA                         2003

Three-Person Exhibition, Kaneko Gallery/American River College, Sacramento, CA         2001

Indoor/ Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition, City of Santa Clara, Santa Clara, CA         2001

Abstractions and Constructions, Synopsys, Inc., 3 Com Corp., Aspect                 2001

Communications, Silicon Valley, CA

Bay Area Portfolio: Wood Works, The Bedford Gallery/Dean Lesher Regional        1998

Center for the Arts Walnut Creek, CA

Latent August-The Legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, (sponsored by the        1996

Japanese-American Historical Society), San Francisco, CA

Three-Person Exhibition, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artist's        1994    Gallery, San Francisco, CA

 

Awards

Lafayette Library and Learning Center Purchase Award-Permanent Collection         2010

(Curated by the Oakland Museum of California) 

Cyberart: The Merging of Art and Technology,  Arts Education Fellowship,        1995 

The National Endowment for the Arts and the Getty Center for Art Education

Selected Collections

Lafayette Library and Learning Center, Lafayette, CA

Rene DiRosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, CA

University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, WI

Netscape Communications, Mountain View, CA

Cadence Design Systems/3 Com. Corp., San Jose, CA

Clorox Corp., Oakland, CA

First Federal Bank of San Rafael, San Rafael, CA

Bibliography

• Feedspot—Top 50 Contemporary Art Blogs And Websites To Follow in 2018 

https://blog.feedspot.com/contemporary_art_blogs/  

• Life As a Human—The Human Interest Magazine for Evolving Minds, Is There Life on Mars? 2018   https://lifeasahuman.com/2018/virtual-art-gallery/sculpture/is-there-life-          on-mars/