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Born 1920 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Keene enlisted in the army in 1941, serving in the Air Corp in several bases, including Tuskegee.
He received his BFA in 1947 and MFA in 1948 from the Tyler School of Fine Art, Philadelphia. He studied at the Academie Julian in Paris, becoming a part of Gallery 8, and exhibited with Picasso and Leger at the Salon de Mai. 1952 & 54 Whitney Fellowships allowed him to direct courses at the Centre D'Art, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. From 1964 to 1968 he taught at the Philadelphia College of Art; from 1968 through 1985 at the Bucks County Community College.
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
The African American Museum in Philadelphia
Bowdoin College
The British Museum
The Dallas Museum of Art
The Delaware Museum of Art
The Free Library of Philadelphia
The Hampton University Museum
The Hirshorn Museum, Smithsonian Institution
Howard University
The Michener Museum
Morgan State University
The New York Public Library
The Nigerian National Museum
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Philadelphia Museum of Art
Johnson C. Smith University
The Tucson Museum of Art
Tyler School of Art, Temple University
The John Hay Whitney Collection
The Woodmere Art Museum
SELECTED AWARDS
1998 George Beach Pioneer Award, University of the Arts, Philadelphia
1972 Art Education Alumni Award, Philadelphia College of Art
1964 Achievement Award, American Exhibiting Artists
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2001 Senior Artists Initiative, Selected Works, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia
Fleisher in the 1930’s, Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia
2000 An Exuberant Bounty: Prints and Drawings by African American Artists, Philadelphia Museum of Art:
From West to Wyeth, Woodmere Art Museum
1998 Serial Images, Brandywine Workshop, solo, Philadelphia
1995 Urban Walls, Ryder College, solo, Lawrenceville, NJ
1991 Icons, Myths & Legends, traveling solo exhibition: African American Museum, Philadelphia, and The Michener Art, Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania
1990 Van Der Zee Award, Brandywine Workshop, Philadelphia
1988 Kenkeleba Gallery, New York
1985 Retrospective Exhibition, Bucks County Community College, Pennsylvania
1985 Retrospective Exhibition, Bucks County Community College, Pennsylvania
1984 Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, PA solo
1982 Second World Black & African Festival of Art & Culture, Lagos, Nigeria
1976 Bicentennial Black Pennsylvania Artist Show, State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg
1971 Master Series Exhibition, Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh, PA Glassboro State College, NJ
1970 Retrospective Exhibition, Wells College, Aurora, NY
Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Annual
Montclair State College, NJ
1969 San Jose State College; LaSalle College Black Artist
1968 Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, NC solo, 1968-85
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Annual
1966 Philadelphia Art Alliance; Awarded Mural Commission,
Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte NC
1965 Morgan State University, solo, Baltimore
1961 Lagos Museum, Nigeria; Roko Gallery, New York
1957 Philadelphia Art Alliance, solo
1953 Centre D'Art, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
1952 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Annual
Dubin Gallery, solo Philadelphia
Colgate University, solo New York