About
My paintings are landscapes, often about longing and largely based on my time in New Mexico and Japan. I look at these spaces through a haze of physical, emotional, and temporal distance while using my background in literature and languages, as well as research into nuclear histories, as a way to tie the real world to a space of imagination. Painting enables me to revisit these places and propose an alternative reality to an established narrative.
Keith Spencer (b.1982, New Mexico) is a visual artist, writer, and educator. Keith obtained a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL) in 2016, and completed his MFA at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (Vancouver, BC) in 2019. In 2009, Keith was named a goodwill ambassador for Fukushima prefecture, Japan and in 2016 received The Mary Koga Memorial Grant from the Japan America Society of Chicago. Keith was a 2019 Emily Carr University of Art + Design Teaching Fellow whose work has been shown in the US, Japan, and Canada. He currently lives in Kyoto, Japan.
EDUCATION
2019 Emily Carr University of Art + Design - Vancouver, BC
Master of Fine Arts
2016 School of the Art Institute of Chicago - Chicago, IL
Post-Baccalaureate
2005 University of New Mexico - Albuquerque, NM
Bachelor of Arts
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2021 おぼろ月
Itonowa - Kyoto
Itonowa - Kyoto
2019 Hotel Wall Stew
Kagan Hotel - Kyoto
Kagan Hotel - Kyoto
Netflix and Chill II: The Chillening
Apartment gallery - Chicago
Apartment gallery - Chicago
Introspection | Extrospection
Michael O'Brian Exhibition Commons - Vancouver
Michael O'Brian Exhibition Commons - Vancouver
2018 Understory
Ground Floor Art Centre - Vancouver
Polyphony
Michael O'Brian Exhibition Commons - Vancouver2017 Crossovers
CRCP Exhibition Hall - Vancouver
Netflix and Chill
D&S Gallery - Chicago
2016 Post-Baccalaureate 2016 Salon
School of the Art Institute of Chicago - Chicago
Nippon Steel 23, Exhibition 2
Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal U.S.A. Office Gallery - Chicago
2015 Nippon Steel 23, Exhibition 1
Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal U.S.A. Office Gallery - Chicago
Bad Painting
School of the Art Institute of Chicago - Chicago
2013 ココデミル - Here You See
3F Project Room - Kyoto
2012 Kizugawa Art Fair
Monomaru Gallery - Kizugawa
Rincha Tea Ceremony: 華 - Hana
Shusui-tei, Kyoto Imperial Palace - Kyoto
RESIDENCIES
2019 Kagan Hotel - Kyoto