British artist and curator Keith Coventry was born in 1958 and currently resides in London. He attended the Chelsea School of Art in London in 1981. He supported himself by working a number of jobs, including stints as a caretaker at a local school and painter and decorator for famous property magnate, Nicholas Van Hoogstraten. For a decade from 1988, Coventry co-founded and curated City Racing, a gallery that ran not-for-profit in London. His work was themed on combining a social issue with historical art themes and seeing what the mix created; having a strong belief that social issues empower modernism.
In 1997 his work was featured in the Royal Academy of Arts’ seminal exhibition, Sensation. Coventry won the John Moores Painting Prize in 2010 for his Spectrum Jesus painting, resulting in an award of £25,000. It is said this work was inspired by his Roman Catholic childhood and the images of Jesus he encountered frequently. His departure from a monochromatic colour scheme to brighter colours in this work were inspired by Jesus Christ being known as ‘the light;. His work can be found at a variety of locations around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London and the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego.
