Steve Keene

Steve Keene ( born 1957 in Washington, DC) is an American painter. He lives in Brooklyn, New York City.

Biography

Keene studied at Yale University and at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Since 1992 he paints his pictures in public, often in art museums and galleries across the United States and worldwide, so in 1999 the Museum Ludwig in Cologne.

Work

"I have worked eight to eight clock clock early in the evening, I'm like a pizza baker who bakes a pizza after another. I paint 60-96 images per day. The more, the better! "

Keene usually painted several wooden panels at the same time with the same subject. This allows him to produce several dozen paintings a day. From every painting Keens are several variants that differ only due to the analog operation. Each painting is unique. At first it was a project against the established art scene, with growing success, it was his life's work. Keene has over 250,000 paintings painted and is ranked among the " most productive " painters ever. Some critics compare Keene with Andy Warhol.

The motifs are often borrowed from the everyday or often include American symbols such as the flag of the United States, known record covers or portraits of Abraham Lincoln. Stylistically his paintings between expressionism, pop art, graffiti art and naive painting.

The exclusively in acrylic painted on wood panel paintings sold Keen sporadically for a few dollars apiece. Even for well-known art collector Dennis Hopper, Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein or Guggenheim director Thomas Krens, there are no exceptions.

Reception

Steve Keene benefited from its close relationships with sizes of independent music, as the band Pavement, for which he took over, for example, the cover design of the album Wowee Zowee. Members of Pavement and other bands like Soul Coughing, Dave Matthews Band, Silver Jews / David Berman or Merzbow, are avowed supporters and fans of Keene.

2004 turned Andreas Geiger and Thomas Schlottmann the documentary Fresh Art Daily on Keene.