Scott Keightley’s ongoing series of music stands began as a response to the pandemic and bears witness to the drive to find meaning in the face of overwhelming tragedy through creative practice. Amnesia(2020), the first music stand Keightley made, encrusted in chandelier crystals, creates both celebratory light refractions and a mournful sense of absence. On subsequent pieces he has printed sheet music and flowers on music stands, a tender homage to the practice of his partner, renowned violinist Emily Daggett Smith, also featured in this exhibition. Using elements such as deconstructed chandeliers, musical notations, key chains, finials, and knobs, Keightley wrestles with the past, fabricating new meanings and something whole out of disparate parts and newer technologies. The reference to light in the crystals and clip-on lamps seems to support a desire to illuminate, heal and reflect.
Born in 1987 in Boston, Massachusetts. Lives and works in Hudson, New York.
Selected solo exhibitions include Response at Metropolitan Structures in Baltimore, Maryland (2016); Tomorrow is Already Here at 247365 Gallery in Brooklyn, New York (2016); and Daybreak at Lana’s in Brooklyn, New York (2015).
Selected group exhibitions include Shifters curated by Amelia Stein at Macintosh Lane in London, United Kingdom (2020, postponed due to Covid-19); The Dose Makes the Poison at Baba Yaga in Hudson, New York (2019); Group Show at Grand Buffet / 90 Green in Hudson, New York (2019); Simile Stone at La KAJE in Brooklyn, New York (2018); and Crane Game at Cul De Sac in Brooklyn, New York (2018). Keightley was a recipient of a Basilica Hudson grant in 2020. He is the founder of Baba Yaga in Hudson, New York and co-founder of Violet’s Cafe in Brooklyn, New York (2013–16).
Keightley studied at Parsons School of Design in New York City, New York.