Josh Keyes was born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1969. He grew up surrounded by forests and saw them destroyed by industry. It’s no wonder, then, that environmental protection would later preoccupy him.
Keyes began his career shortly after graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1992, and a few years later he transferred to Yale University School of Art, where he earned an MFA in painting and printmaking. Over the years, Keyes’ work has been exhibited in galleries in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York and published in New American Painters.
Although Keyes’ works are critical, there is a fascination with our planet in them. The strange and sometimes funny images are the result of in-depth observations of the earth and its society. It seems as if the artist is trying to articulate, but not embellish, the system and the complexity behind it. By depicting animals in a wide variety of states, Keyes aims to stimulate a debate. He wants a more intense relationship between the biological and the human worlds. On this level, the entire spectrum of his work moves from pure art to activist practice.
Josh Keyes’ dark and fantastic stories are hyper-realistic and represent hybrid forms. Those are based on references from art history as well as trashy depictions of animals. It’s the result of his fascination with photorealistic painting and science fiction. He wants to create another world, which is a mixture of reality and illusion. With a lot of irony he gives a social commentary that practically acts as a warning about the current state of society.
