Keith Mayerson's lushly executed paintings and works on paper have depicted a broad range of iconic figures, images and moments from popular culture, history, art, literature, film and music in the service of composing larger allegorical narratives about the times in which we live, and the issues and values that form our collective history and future. Mayerson's evolving body of work has served as both a personal homage to the people and experiences that have shaped his individual identity and beliefs, and a reminder of their broader social and historical impact. While the majority of Mayerson's paintings to date have been based on pictures appropriated from magazines, books, newspapers, and films, his painterly versatility, unique and unusual palette, and complete personal immersion in the reverential treatment of his chosen subjects transforms them, allowing them to transcend time, context, and the pre-existing source images from which they derive.
Over the past few years, Mayerson's work has taken a decidedly personal turn, as his paintings have increasingly derived from photographs that he has taken himself. Entitled "Art, Life and Fashion", the artist's second exhibition at SHAHEEN will revolve around a group of recent paintings that depict scenes from his own life, and his surroundings - namely New York, where he lives, and his cabin in Riverside, California, where he spends several weeks a year. The exhibition will also include previously un-exhibited paintings based on photographs that Mayerson took while on assignment for Interview Magazine covering the haute couture fashion shows in Paris, as well as drawings depicting scenes from his travels to Amsterdam, a city he reveres. As a larger narrative allegory, the overall installation will juxtapose the circus-like spectacle and atmosphere of the fashion world with personal and political images from art and cultural history; paintings depicting the ever-evolving growth of Manhattan as a metaphor for the power of American industry; and an idealized vision of the American landscape in the 21st century, where nature and light still have the ability to provoke the sublime.
Born in Cincinnati, Keith Mayerson lives and works in New York. Since 1993, his paintings and drawings have appeared in numerous gallery and museum exhibitions in the United States and Europe. His work resides in the permanent collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Washington, D.C.'s Corcoran Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Mayerson also teaches fine art, cultural theory, and comics at New York University, Brooklyn College and the School of the Visual Arts.