The Steve Keene 30 Year Retrospective Art Book Launch
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The first-Ever 30-Year BK/NYC Retrospective Celebrates Book Launch & Features Collections From Across The US.

The show to will include experiential painting hours & many pieces included in The Steve Keene Art Book

“…a churning waterfall of creation.” – Stephen Malkmus, Pavement

“Steve Keene is a legend.” – LA Weekly

“…monumentally prolific…” – Variety ”

[‘The Steve Keene Art Book’]…a sprawling and lovingly arranged collection of high-resolution photos of Keene’s decidedly low-res art.” – Pitchfork

Steve Keene’s continuous 30-year affordable art experiment celebrates the launch of The Steve Keene Art Book with an experiential show that brings together collections from across the United States and the NY Metro as the first-ever 30-Year Retrospective Art Book Launch.

The show will include a full room of Hand Painted Multiples, Album Art Tributes, an oversized mural and a debut of his latest series of Tattooed Plywood (engraved) works. The show is making its New York public debut after a mesmerizing success in Los Angeles in August 2022.

The 30-Year Retrospective will include artworks from the personal collections of Daniel Efram (New York), producer/auteur of The Steve Keene Art Book, and from The Apples in stereo’s Robert Schneider (Athens, Georgia) and Eric Allen (Denver, Colorado). A large Elephant 6 Recording Co themed mural owned by The Apples’ Allen, will be shown for only the second time. Additionally, New York locals have been invited to submit their Steve Keene collections online in return for the possibility of being included.

This will be Keene’s second NYC show of 2022, following one in April at Leo Fitzpatrick’s Public Access gallery on the Lower East Side. The upcoming retrospective comes on the heels of one first held earlier this summer in Los Angeles. Keene’s return to Los Angeles was an homage to the show that proved to be the inspiration behind the book: his 2016 “Modular Synthesis” month-long stay at Shepard Fairey’s Subliminal Projects gallery, where Keene sold more than 500 pieces on opening night with lines stretching out the door and around the block in Echo Park.

About the Artist

“Steve Keene is the Johnny Appleseed of art.” — Elsa Longhauser, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (Time Magazine)

Virginia-born Brooklyn resident Steve Keene, who has created more than 300,000 paintings, is perhaps the most prolific artist of all time. First gaining notoriety via his album covers in the mid-’90s (including albums by Pavement, Silver Jews and The Apples in stereo), his bright, colorful paintings have become embedded in our lives and decorate spaces across the world.

Six years in the making, The Steve Keene Art Book was born out of a 2016 exhibition at Subliminal Projects gallery, curated by Daniel Efram and gallery owners Amanda and Shepard Fairey. While some see Keene as an outsider artist, he has two fine art degrees and has shown his work at prestigious events such as Frieze New York, Marlborough Gallery, the Brooklyn Public Library, where he was artist in residence and painted live on Grand Army Plaza for months, and in cities such as Melbourne and Cologne.

For more information on Steve visit his website and follow him on Instagram.

About the Author

Efram, a music and media producer and photographer who has developed live projects, documentary films and television for stages and screens, curated Steve Keene’s Brooklyn Experience. Efram began working with Keene back in the ’90s after seeing Keene’s work at Threadwaxing Space, a venue in a loft space on Lower Broadway in Manhattan.

For more information on Daniel visit his website and follow him on Instagram.