Father Robert Keffer, O.S.B., director of The Saint Vincent Gallery, will present a one-person exhibit of 25 of his realist and surrealist oil paintings in the Gallery.

The exhibit will open with a reception from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, April 26, featuring a talk by Father Robert. Complimentary hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be available.

The exhibit will continue through Sunday, May 13. Gallery hours are 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays and at other times by appointment. The Gallery, located on the third floor of the Robert S. Carey Student Center, is closed on Mondays. Admission is free and open to the public.

Father Robert, a monk of Saint Vincent Archabbey, has a special interest in 20th century art history and the surrealist movement. He has been involved in an in-depth study of Salvador Dali, a prominent Spanish surrealist painter, in conjunction with representatives of the Salvador Dali Museum of St. Petersburg, Florida. In August 2017, he was a featured lecturer at the Dali Musuem, presenting, “Go to the Desert, Go to the Devil: The Temptation of St. Anthony and the Desert Experience in the Art of Salvador Dali.”

His lectures have included “Spiraling Out to the Divine: The Fibonacci Sequence, DNA and the Fifth Dimension in the Religious Art of Salvador Dali,” and “The Chiaroscuro of God: Light and Shadow, Sin and Redemption in the Sacred Art of Michelangelo Merisi Di Caravaggio.”

He is a painter and art lecturer, also serves as a chaplain at Excela Health Latrobe Hospital. He is sacramental minister to Saint Michael’s and Saint Mary’s Catholic Churches in West Salisbury. Father Robert has also served as a retreatmaster and lecturer on art and Catholic spirituality.

He studied art at the former Ivy Institute of Art in Pittsburgh, the American Academy of Art in Chicago, the Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia and with private instructors.

A native of Connellsville, he entered the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank in Sparta, Wisconsin, in 1989, made his solemn vows in 1993 and was ordained a priest in 1995.

He studied Biblical exegesis and philosophy at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, and at the Angelicum in Rome, Italy. His monastic formation took place at the Abbey of Hauterive in Switzerland. He transferred to Saint Vincent in May 2014.

For more information, contact the Saint Vincent Gallery at 724-805-2197.