Born in Tacoma, Washington, Josh Keyes grew up in a household of artists. With his dad being a sculptor and his mom working as a painter, Keyes was surrounded and influenced by art from a young age on. Now based in Portland, Oregon, Keyes has developed into a highly renowned contemporary artist, known for creating incredible photorealistic paintings on canvas. Josh’s woks have been featured as part of the opening of URBAN NATION Museum in 2017.
Eyeing Keyes’ art, one has to look twice at the objects he creates, mostly animals, to make sure they were not captured by a camera. Mixing dystopian folktales and eco-surrealism, he paints compositions of animals roaming a world that was seemingly destroyed and left by humans, with wrecked cars, road signs and graffiti being the last remnants of the former inhabitants.
His often satirical look at the impact of urban sprawl on the environment and what could happen if we continue to pollute our planet, harming animals and nature on the way, was heavily influenced by sci-fi movies and novels he watched and read as a kid, like Mad Max, Escape from New York and dystopian novels by H.G. Wells and Aldous Huxley. Keyes is a graduate of School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Yale, where he received a Master of Fine Arts in painting and printmaking.
