Keith Foskin was born in 1956. He grew up in Saint Louis, Missouri. Although Keith had always been interested in art, he first became seriously engaged in the arts when he took an introductory drawing course at the Florissant Valley Community College in the late 1970’s, taught by a strict eastern European émigré, Professor Geroge Bartko.

After this, Keith traveled for several years, taking numerous art classes, before finally settling in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he earned his BFA in Art in 1986. From 1986 to 1989 Keith completed his MFA in Art, with a concentration in Painting. His MFA thesis was titled: It’s Gonna’ Take a Lot of Love to Get Us Through the Advertisements. From 1989-2008, Keith lived in various places (Reno, Lake Tahoe, and Fort Collins). During this period he exhibited his work and continued to paint, draw and make prints as he perfected (and mastered) his own distinct artistic style and content.

There are many artists that inspired and influenced Keith’s work. The east coast Abstract-Expressionists, especially Willem De Kooning, always remained his major artistic influence, along with James G. Davis, a painter living in the American Southwest. In the middle 2000’s, the South African painter (now living in the Netherlands), Marlene Dumas remained quite inspirational. Naturally, there were a good many others.

Throughout his life as a painter, Keith strove to reassemble (quoting Keith’s artist statement) ‘the initial idealized image (such as a cover of a Vogue Magazine or a holiday greeting card) via askew visual proportions and cockeyed narratives.’ These attempts fashioned ‘an unmasking of the tangled maze of a commercial hypnotic sensuality.’ He wasn’t only after the ‘pretty pictures of numerous utopias of commerce (celebrity(ism) but wished to also expose the ‘visual naivety which internalizes’ such images.

Alexandra Bernasek, Keith’s Partner, sums up best how we all feel: He felt like he had all the time in the world. We do not have all the time in the world, but he painted as if he did. His work lives on and although he had so many more paintings in him, what he leaves us is enough. Please, see his work. His name is Keith Foskin.