Jeff Keen

Jeff Keen (1923–2012) was born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, and spent much of his life in Brighton, where he developed a prolific and influential artistic practice that spanned painting, collage, performance, poetry, and experimental filmmaking. A pioneering figure in post-war British counterculture, Keen forged a singular visual language that challenged artistic conventions and reflected the intensity and fragmentation of modern life.

Drawing on sources as diverse as archetypal mythologies, Surrealism, Romanticism, comic books, pulp fiction, and Hollywood B-movies, Keen created works that captured the frenetic energy of post-war Western society. His multidisciplinary approach blurred the boundaries between media and genres, resulting in a body of work that remains both subversive and remarkably contemporary. Since his death in 2012, Keen's work has continued to receive significant institutional recognition. Major retrospectives include Shoot the WRX: Artist and Filmmaker Jeff Keen at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery and Gazwrx: The Films of Jeff Keen at the BFI Southbank, London. In 2012, Tate Modern presented Gazapocalypse – Return to the Golden Age, a major installation in the museum's Tanks. His work has also been exhibited, screened, and performed at venues including Tate Britain, the Hayward Gallery, the Serpentine Gallery, Trondheim Kunstmuseum in Norway, and the London Film Festival.

These works are offered direct from the Jeff Keen Archive.