Steve Keister at Freddy

Artist: Steve Keister

Exhibition title: Batz

Venue: Freddy, New York, US

Date: June 25 – July 30, 2022

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Freddy

Bats are avatars of the uncanny. In our mythologies we humans project our fears and fantasies onto these flying, nocturnal mammals. In the Yucatan peninsula bats communed with the spirits of the dead in the sacred cenotes, stone temples and tombs. It seems fitting that this survey of bat imagery should be assembled at Freddy’s church.

The Mayan bat-God Zotz is a prince of the Underworld associated with darkness, death and sacrifice. His iconography supplies a template for this series of interpretations. His pointy ears, protruding snout and serrated wings are unmistakably spooky. The show traces my stylistic evolution over a 15-year period as I return to this subject at intervals. Since the mid-nineties my process has involved making molds from found Styrofoam and cardboard containers to cast ceramic slip. These parts are then combined to form faces and bodies. As my vocabulary of forms increases, my imagery evolves. I always start with the face, setting up a psychological nodule to anchor the gaze. The body extends the image just enough to complete an entity, an embodiment of the mystery of the unknowable.

Steve Keister was born in 1949 in Lancaster, PA. He earned a BFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 1971, and an MFA from Tyler School of Art in 1973. Keister is the recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and a Gottlieb Foundation Grant, among other awards. His work is included in numerous museum collections. Solo exhibitions include:

Nancy Lurie Gallery, Chicago, Texas Gallery, Houston, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, BlumHelman Gallery, NY, Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne, Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, Bill Maynes Gallery, NY, Feature Inc., NY, Mitchell Algus Gallery, NY.