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TWO OF A KIND:
Twins Combine Business Sense, Passion for Beauty to
Create one of State's Top Galleries,
from The Columbus Dispatch,
Sunday, May 15, 2005, By Bill Mayr
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Like other 20-somethings, brothers Jim and Tim Keny sat up late at night talking about what they wanted to do with their lives. ''We knew we liked art,''
Jim said. That mutual interest proved to be the key to their careers.
Today, the Keny twins are 49 and celebrating the 25th anniversary of Keny Galleries, a fixture of the German Village neighborhood that ranks among the most successful galleries in Columbus and Ohio. ''They have succeeded admirably,'' said Nannette Maciejunes, Columbus Museum of Art executive
director.
The brothers were raised in a family that appreciated both art and good business sense, they said. ''My mom saw (Columbus watercolor painter) Alice
Schille quite regularly, and she sat for a portrait that Schille painted in 1931,'' Tim said. Their father, Gebhardt, was a board member of the Columbus
Museum of Art and a founder in the 1930s of Columbus Plastic Products. ''That entrepreneurial spirit was something we grew up around,'' Tim said.
Jim graduated from Harvard University with a degree combining art history and economics. His brother majored in art history at Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., and received a master's in business administration at Ohio State University. Maciejunes has worked with Jim -- whom she described as
''a known scholar in late-19th-century American painting'' -- in developing exhibits and producing essays and other art-related publications. He collaborated with her and others to produce ''Ohio: The State of the Arts,'' a major exhibition that toured statewide during the Ohio bicentennial.
Tim, meanwhile, gathered folk and contemporary art for the gallery. The Kenys have been rewarded for their efforts. ''We're having the best year we've
ever had in the history of the gallery,'' Jim said. ''We're coming out of the last recession we had in art; it's a strong market right now.'' The brothers
estimate that the gallery will have gross sales of $10 million this year. Prices of individual works have ranged from $300 to $6 million. In the coming year,
the gallery will participate more in national shows featuring a range of dealers. An increasing emphasis on sculpture and folk and contemporary art also is
on the radar.
The future also could belong to a new generation of Kenys, who someday might join the business. Tim, who lives in Bexley, has five children, ages 10 to
21. Jim, a German Village resident, has four, ages 13 to 19. Operating an art gallery for 25 years is impressive; doing it with your brother and getting along with him are equally impressive. ''One thing that helps is, No. 1, growing up as fraternal twins, we understand each other pretty well,'' Tim said. ''And
No. 2, on a day-to-day basis, we're managing different aspects of the gallery. ''We go out to lunch several times a week and talk over business and all
kinds of things. We definitely get along.''
As for art, ''It is something that is our passion.''
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