[4] He also made small realistic coloured pencil drawings of the wildflowers typical of his home county (primrose, snowdrop, buttercup), always against stark blank paper.
His sensitivity for light, colour, and textiles transferred into his highly considered constructions or rooms (such as Nest (The Bravery of Birds) for the Venice Biennale in 2005[5]).
Two-person exhibitions include “Pool”, a collaboration with Dorothy Cross at Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, 2010; “A Certain Distance, Endless Light” with Félix Gonzáles-Torres, Middlesbrough Museum of Modern Art, curated by Gavin Delahunty in 2010.
In 2005, William McKeown was invited to represent Northern Ireland at the 51st Venice Biennale, in the exhibition “The Nature of Things” curated by Hugh Mulholland.
Other group exhibitions include East International, Norwich, selected by Tacita Dean and Nicholas Logsdail, 1997; “A Measured Quietude”, The Drawing Center, New York and Berkeley Art Museum, California, 1999; “The Sea & The Sky”, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin and Beaver College of Art Gallery, Philadelphia, curated by Patrick T. Murphy and Richard Torchia, 2000; “Rooms For Waiting In”, Galway Arts Centre, curated by Michael Dempsey, 2005; “A Dream of Discipline” with Dorothy Cross and Kathy Prendergast, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, 2006.
William McKeown curated "The Holiday Show" at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, in 2002, presenting work by Maureen Gallace, Darragh Hogan, Isabel Nolan, Gavin O'Curry, Stuart Purdy, Anne Ryan and Andrew Vickery.
Texts by Chris Arthur, Caroline Hancock, Enrique Juncosa [es], Corinna Lotz, Declan Long; and poems by Dominic Echlin and William Wordsworth.
In 2016, his work was the subject of a short film by Pat Collins, entitled Idir Neamh agus Talamh: Saothar William McKeown.