Josh Keyes is an American contemporary artist who works with painting, drawing, and installation art. He currently works out of Portland

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

. His work has been described as "a satirical look at the impact urban sprawl has on the environment and surmises, with the aid of scientific slices and core samples, what could happen if we continue to infiltrate and encroach on our rural surroundings."

Josh’s work brings to mind the detail and complexity of natural history dioramas, and the color and diagrammatic complexity one might find in cross section illustrations from a vintage science textbook. His work has developed over the past years into an iconic and complex personal vocabulary of imagery that creates a mysterious and sometimes unsettling juxtaposition between the natural world and the man made landscape. The work conveys an anxious vision of what the world might be like in the future as a result of current global warming predictions. Keyes’ interest in creating paintings that fuse realism with the possible often evokes the imagery found in dystopian and post-apocalyptic literature, while other works express the optimism and utopian ideas found in the writings of Buckminster Fuller and Paolo Soleri. Keyes often incorporates objects and animals into his dissected environments that have personal iconographic significance. He weaves his personal mythology through fractured and isolated landscapes that are either overgrown with vegetation or underwater, and often depict historic or military monuments covered with graffiti. The imagery functions as a way for Keyes to express his personal experience and also allows him to comment and interpret events in the world. His work has been featured in numerous publications and exhibited in galleries in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Denver. Keyes currently lives and works in Portland Oregon.

Biography

Keyes earned a bachelor's degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a master's degree in painting and printmaking from Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

.

Selected Solo Shows

• "Signs and Symptoms", The Penny Lucas Gallery, Tacoma, WA, USA (1996)
• "Josh Keyes",The Commencement Art Gallery, Tacoma, WA, USA (1996)
• "Josh Keyes Recent Painting", Hey! Gallery, Oakland, CA, USA (2001)
• "Drift", Nexus Gallery, Berkeley, CA, USA (2003)
• "Josh Keyes", George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA (2007)
• "Surface Tension", Hang Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA (2007)
• "Side Effects", Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY, USA (2008)
• "Mist", OKOK Gallery, Seattle, WA, USA (2008)
• "Sprout", David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, CO, USA (2009)
• "Fragment", Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York, NY, USA (2010)

Selected Group Shows

• "Industry", Gallery Kultrurhass, Tacoma, WA (1993)
• "Group Show", The Commencement Art Gallery, Tacoma, WA (1995)
• "MFA Candidate Exhibition", Yale University, New Haven, CT (1996)
• "Summer in New Haven", Yale University, New Haven, CT (1997)
• "MFA Thesis Show", Yale University, New Haven, CT (1998)
• "Celebration", !Hey! Gallery, Oakland, CA (2001)
• "New Paintings and Drawings", 332, Oakland, CA (2001)
• "Phantom Dreams and Lollipop Orbits", Nexus Gallery, Berkeley, CA (2002)
• "New Tales to Tell", San Luis Obispo Art Center, San Luis Obispo, CA (2004)
• "Industrial Beauty", George Billis Gallery, New York, NY (2004)
• "Recent Work by Lisa Ericson and Josh Keyes", PLU, Tacoma, WA (2004)
• "George Billis Inaugural Show", George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2004)
• "New Faces", Hang Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2005)
• "The Human Zoo", Lobot Gallery, Oakland, CA (2005)
• "Marking Traces", 33 Grand, Oakland, CA (2005)
• "Laugh Out Loud", Hang Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2005)
• AAF Contemporary Art Fair New York City, New York, NY (2005)
• "Drawn", Art Murmur, Los Angeles, CA (2006)
• "Monster Drawing Rally", Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA (2006)
• "Overhung 2", Boontling Gallery, Oakland, CA (2006)
• "Alternate Realities", Hang Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2006)
• "Kyle Mock and Josh Keyes", Boontling Gallery, Oakland, CA (2006)
• "Fecal Face Dot Com", 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2006)
• "Unframed", Hang Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2006)
• "Natural and Unnatural", Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, NJ (2006)
• "Droppin' Drawers", Okay Mountain, Austin, TX (2006)
• "Drawn", Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland, CA (2006)
• "Oakland - East Side Story", YBCA, San Francisco, CA (2006)
• Art 212, George Billis Gallery, 69th Regiment Armory, New York, NY (2006)
• "Boontling All Star Show", Boontling Gallery, Oakland, CA (2006)
• "Utopia", 111 Minna, San Francisco, CA (2006)
• "Elevation", Limited Addiction Gallery, Denver, CO (2007)
• "New Works by John Casey and Josh Keyes", TAG art gallery, Nashville, TN (2007)
• "Overhung 3: Well Hung", Boontling Gallery, Oakland, CA (2007)
• "Picks Of The Harvest", Thinkspace Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2007)
• "16th Annual Swap Meet", Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York, NY (2007)
• "Arcadia 2007 Artists Celebrate Trees", California Modern Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2007)
• "Stranger Than Fiction", Hang Art, San Francisco, CA (2007)
• "Artifice of Form", Swarm Gallery, Oakland, CA (2007)
• "Josh Keyes and Oliver Vernon", Limited Addiction Gallery, Denver, CO (2007)
• "Gold Rush", Okay Mountain, Austin, TX (2008)
• "John Casey and Josh Keyes", TAG Art Gallery, Nashville, TN (2008)
• "Contested Ground: The Landscape Redrawn", Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, Spokane, WA (2008)
• Red Dot Art Fair, represented by Limited Addiction Gallery, New York, NY (2008)

Limited Edition Prints

• Above and Below, Tiny Showcase (Providence, Rhode Island, United States), 2006 [Edition of 100]
• Treadmill, Limited Addiction Gallery (Denver, Colorado, United States), 2007 [Edition of 50]
• The Magician's Garden #3, Tiny Showcase (Providence, Rhode Island, United States), 2007 [Edition of 200]
• Tic Toc, Limited Addiction Gallery (Denver, Colorado, United States), 2007 [Edition of 50]
• Watcher #3, Limited Addiction Gallery (Denver, Colorado, United States), 2008 [Edition of 150]
• Weaving, Tiny Showcase (Providence, Rhode Island, United States), 2008 [unknown edition number]
• Thunder, Limited Addiction Gallery (Denver, Colorado, United States), 2008 [Edition of 100]
• Guardian I, Limited Addiction Gallery (Denver, Colorado, United States), 2008 [Edition of 100]

External links

• Artist Website
• Josh Keyes Discussion Forum
• Interview: Fecal Face
• Studio Visit: Fecal Face
• Interview: Tastemakers Society