As with many works of contemporary art, Claudia Keep’s compact paintings first entered my field of vision on social media, where her imagery retains its appeal, even as her textured, varicolored and economical brushstrokes are flattened out.
Keep often makes blunt close-ups of New England’s less glamorous insects, setting their tiny bodies against monochrome grounds. She can drop the viewer down to a child’s perspective, laying us out on our bellies, so low that our knees, elbows and eyes are cushioned in the grass. In Last Guest at the Birthday Party (2023), Keep rests our cheek against a synthetic gingham tablecloth, so we may better observe the airy, paper mâché wings of a small, white moth.
Through the repetitive execution of a single type of mark, Keep renders fleeting phenomena—like a sunset driving shafts of light through a stand of trees, snowfall curving around a speeding car’s windshield like a dome, and the distortion that ripples effect on figures submerged in water. These works will appeal to nostalgics like myself who start missing experiences before they’re over and people before they’re gone.
