keene.galleryTOBIAS KEENEThe Black PaintingsSUMMER 2026TOBIAS KEENE"THE BLACK PAINTINGS" PRESENTS A SERIES OF CANVASES DEFINED BY EXPANSIVE DARK SURFACESIn "The Black Paintings", Tobias Keene returns to childhood not as memory or narrative, but as an exploration of psychological conditions that shapes individuals. Familiar actions — dancing, sitting, skipping, holding — are removed from their expected environments and held instead within a contained black field. Movement is arrested and gesture is isolated, so that each figure appears held within unseen structures of relation, restraint, and control — the conditions through which identity begins to take form. What emerges is not a conventional narrative, but a progression of formation: from the solitary child at play, to children negotiating relation and group presence, and finally to portraits in which identity appears as something inherited, performed, and self-authored.VIEW PAINTINGS arrow_drop_down_circlekeene.gallery California | Texas | Oxfordshire KeeneonArt inquiries@keene.gallerykeene.gallery KeeneOnArtinquiries@keene.galleryCALIFORNIA | TEXAS | OXFORDSHIREClick to ExploreARTWORKS:PAINTINGS & PHOTOGRAPHY TOBIAS KEENE | ANNELIZE BESTER arrow_drop_down_circleExhibitionThe Black PaintingsMore Summer 2026Inquirieskeene.gallery
