Keith Coventry, 
British b.1958 - 

Ontological Picture, 2010; 

oil on canvas board, signed and dated on the reverse 'K. Coventry 2010', 20 x 14.9 cm (ARR) 

Note:
The Ontological Picture series (1996-2004) encapsulates Coventry’s desire to bring contemporary political, social and cultural issues into dialogue with key movements of twentieth-century art and philosophy. The series is closely related to his earlier Estate Paintings (1992-2000) which isolated visual elements from British council estate aerial view maps in order to resemble works of key modernist figures such as Kazimir Malevich or Piet Mondrian. For the present series, Coventry appropriated the ‘You Are Here’ arrows from the same maps and turned them into wooden models which he scattered arbitrarily across the canvas, creating the forms of the work. Coventry ironically uses the art language associated with the modernist utopian idealism that spawned these high-density housing projects to comment on the realities of contemporary city life.

Coventry is hugely respected as both an artist and curator. He co-founded and curated City Racing, an influential not-for-profit gallery in Kennington, South London from 1988 to 1998. The gallery gave valuable exposure to artists such as Sarah Lucas, Gillian Wearing and Fiona Banner. Earlier this year Pace Gallery exhibited ‘Keith Coventry: City Racing’, showing celebrated bodies of work alongside a new series. In 2010 he won the John Moores Painting Prize for his Spectrum Jesus painting. 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, Minneapolis; and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.