Ke Francis
About the Artist
Ke Francis was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1945, graduated from Tupelo High School in 1963, and attended Mississippi State University, The University of Memphis, Memphis College of Art, and the Cleveland Art Institute in Cleveland, Ohio where he graduated in 1967 with a B.F.A. in Sculpture. He taught sculpture there from 1967 until 1970 when he returned to Tupelo to open Francis Studios and started Hoopsnake Press. He worked as an independent sculptor and printmaker from 1969 until 1996. During this period he exhibited nationally and internationally and was represented by Author Roger Gallery, New Orleans, Morgan Gallery, Kansas City, Barbara Fendrick Gallery, Washington, DC. And Bill Lowe Gallery in Atlanta and Los Angeles. He served as a writer and regional editor for Untitled, Memphis Tennessee and Atlanta Art Papers, Atlanta, Georgia. During this period he received grants from the NEA, the Southern Arts Federation and the Mississippi Arts Commission and was selected as a Fellow of the Bellagio Study Center, Bellagio, Italy (Rockefeller Foundation) and received the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award.
During the course of his career Mr. Francis has taught workshops and seminars in Belgium, Germany, and at Penland School, Arrowmont, Oxbow, and Haystack School in the U.S. and served as printmaking instructor at the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland. His poetry and short stories have been published in journals across the nation. He, the poet, Andrei Codrescu, and art critic, Dave Hickey are the three writers who have delivered the closing address to national Ceramic Conferences (Francis – Denver 2000).
In 1996 he became Director of Flying Horse Editions, a fine art press at the University of Central Florida. He later was promoted to professor and became chair of the art department and served as dean of research for the College of Arts and Humanities. During the course of his career Mr. Francis has collaborated with, published, exhibited with, and curated exhibitions with many of the most important artists and writers of his generation.
“I believe in the art experience. I believe it is possible, even probable, that reading books, experiencing plays, viewing good art, and listening to beautiful music can make a person a more complete and empathetic human being. I believe that experiences can be shared, emotions expressed and understood, and that these communications offer us insights into the human condition and increase both our tolerance and our appreciation of our fellow humans. ”
