Keith Coventry

Recasting modern life with an idealist sense, Keith Coventry examines logos, addiction, the British monarchy, welfare, and other topics within his paintings and sculptures. His works are stark and minimal, often constructed with blocks of colour. Of particular interest to the artist is fast food advertising, which Coventry frequently represented in slanted, off-centred compositions that express the issues faced within a frantic and confusing modern world. Recent works by the artist take collage as their medium and evoke inter-war central European art. 

Coventry was born in Burnley, 1958. He studied at Brighton Polytechnic from 1978 to 1981, and completed a Masters at the Chelsea School of Art in 1982. In 1988, he co-founded City Racing, which became a renowned South London gallery. Although Coventry had been featured in several group exhibitions in the 1980s, the first of his solo-exhibitions came in 1990. His works were included in a seminal exhibition at the RA, entitled Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection, Royal Academy of Arts, London. In September of 2010, Coventry won the John Moore’s Painting Prize, and in the same year had a mid-career retrospective at the Art Centre, Glasgow. His works are held in major collections internationally, including Tate Modern, London; Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the British Council.