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Keith Coventry

Keith Coventry’s paintings and sculptures filter everyday subject matter — the British monarchy, fast food, addiction, public housing — through the lens of modernist idealism, bringing the movements of twentieth-century art and their tendencies in dialogue with contemporary political, cultural, and social issues. His suprematist and junk paintings made over the past 30 years have solidified a mark that sings to both the peaks of modernist development as well as the meta-modernist conditions we are surrounded by today.

Keith Coventry (b. 1958, Burnley, UK) lives and works in London. He was included in the seminal Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1997 and was co-founder and curator of City Racing, an influential not-for-profit gallery in South London which operated from 1988 until 1998. In 2006, Coventry received a mid-career retrospective at Glasgow's Tramway and in 2010 was awarded the John Moores Painting Prize. His work has been exhibited widely in the United Kingdom and Europe and is included in collections worldwide, including the British Council, Tate Modern, Arts Council of England, Walker Art Center and The Museum of Modern Art.

Keith Coventry, Sayes Court Estate, 2000, oil on canvas, glass and wood, 112 × 86 cm

I look at the history of art, and I look at a social issue and I combine them.

Keith Coventry

Biography

Education

  • 1982

    Chelsea School of Art, London, UK

  • 1978 – 1981

    Brighton Polytechnic, Brighton, UK

Solo Exhibitions

  • 2025

    De Brock, Knokke, Belgium

  • 2024

    Works on Paper 1992 - 2024, The Horse, Dublin, Ireland

  • 2023

    City Racing, Pace Gallery, London, UK

  • 2022

    New Estates, De Brock, Knokke, Belgium

  • 2020

    Junk Paintings, De Brock, Knokke, Belgium

  • 2019

    The Old Comedy, Robert Upstone, London, UK

  • 2018

    Junk & Pure Junk, Reflex Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

  • 2017

    1961 Projects, Singapore

    Golden Arches, Pace Gallery, Hong Kong

    Tabula Rasa, Galerie Lisa Kandlhofer, Austria

  • 2016

    White Black Gold, Pace Gallery, London, UK

  • 2014

    Lieu d’art Contemporain, Narbonne, France

  • 2013

    Twentieth Century Estates, Modern Collections, London, UK

  • 2012

    Junk Paintings, Pace Gallery, London, UK

    Deontological Pictures, Peer, London, UK

    Black Bronze, White Slaves, The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, UK, Traveled to: New Art Centre, Roche Court, East Winterslow, Salisbury, UK

  • 2011

    Collection Particulière, Seomi & Tuus Gallery, Seoul, 2011

  • 2010

    Copper & Silk, Museum of London, London, UK

    Echoes of Albany, The Lightbox, Woking, UK

  • 2009

    Painting and Sculpture Part II: Works 2002–2009, Haunch of Venison, London, UK

  • 2008

    Painting and Sculpture Part I: Early Groups, Haunch of Venison, London, UK

    Copper and Silk, Paul Stolper, London, UK

    Seomi & Tuus Gallery, Seoul, South Korea,

    Heroes and Racists, Fine Arts Society, London, UK

    Anaesthesia as Aesthetic, Haunch of Venison, Zurich, Switzerland

  • 2007

    Key Groups, Julius Werner Gallery, Berlin, Germany

  • 2006

    Paintings, Tramway, Glasgow, UK

    Endangered Species, Fine Arts Society, London, UK

  • 2004

    New Works, Kenny Schachter Rove, London, UK

  • 2002

    It has been said that only the pervert does not do drugs, Emily Tsingou Gallery, London, UK

    Doggerfisher Gallery, Edinburgh, UK

  • 2000

    Emily Tsingou Gallery, London, UK

  • 1998

    Crack, A22 Gallery, London, UK

    White Abstracts and Estate Paintings, Galerie Frahm, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Greeks, Richard Salmon Gallery, London, UK

  • 1997

    Kohn / Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Spacex Gallery, Exeter, UK

    W.A.F.S. (update), Beaconsfield, London, UK

    The Showroom, London, UK

  • 1995

    Ridinghouse Editions, London, UK

    White Abstracts, Curt Marcus Gallery, New York, NY, USA

  • 1994

    Recent Works, Curt Marcus Gallery, New York, NY, USA

    Works, Gardner Arts Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

    White Abstracts, Karsten Schubert, London, UK

  • 1993

    Recent Paintings, Karsten Schubert, London, UK

    Recent Paintings, Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Suprematist Paintings I–X, Karsten Schubert, London, UK

  • 1992

    Ivory Towers, Maureen Paley, Interim Art, London, UK

    Ivory Towers, Karsten Schubert, London, UK

  • 1991

    Karsten Schubert, London, UK

  • 1990

    City Racing, London, UK

Public Collections

  • UK

    Arts Council Collection, London

    British Council Collection, London

    Chatsworth House, Chatsworth, Bakewell, Derbyshire

    Contemporary Art Society, London

    Government Art Collection, London

    New Art Centre, East Winterslow, Salisbury

    The David Roberts Arts Foundation, London

    South London Gallery, London

    Saatchi Collection, London

    Tate Modern, London

    University of Warwick, Coventry

  • US

    Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, IA

    Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA

    The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

    Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN

Selected images

Exhibitions