Keith Josiah
Keith Josiah is a 25 year old painter, musician, and poet from Memphis TN.
“My art is my own self expression. I use art as a way to personify figurative language and concepts and depict the conversations that I have with myself. I use shapes and colors to reflect the different perceptions, thoughts, feelings, emotions, and opinions that I have and how they look within my own imagination.
I am influenced by the sights and sound of the world around me Growing up I was always inspired by music and language hip-hop, rock N roll, jazz, gospel, country and blues were all a huge part of my upbringing in Memphis. Along with music I was always fascinated with words. I love words and how they sound and the way you can say something in a different language. Because my dad was absent my mama worked a lot so I spent a lot of time with my grandaddy who made furniture. Being in his workshop sparked my creativity early on, especially when he would let me use his old fabric, paint, markers and paper. As a really impulsive artists I’ve carried a lot of that with me because I continue to use the materials that are close by whenever I make art. Old shirts, bed sheets, wood, spray paint and even coffee helps me maneuver through some of the ideas that I have in my head that I need to get out right away.“
Artist Background
Keith Josiah had his first official art exhibition in October 2019 when he was invited to New York by the Clio Art Fair group. It was there when he realized the impact that art could make on others in the same way it did for himself. It was also when he first started to feel like the traditional art world was taking advantage of young artists who wanted to make a name for themselves. “Something just didn’t feel fair about it. I pay $1,000 in exhibition fees, $1,000 for the space, i’m paying for my own flight, my own hotel, my own transportation, and still IF i do sell your going to get a percentage of it? But there would be no exhibition without artists so why are artists dealt such a bad situation?”
Keith Josiah had his first official art exhibition in October 2019 when he was invited to New York by the Clio Art Fair group. It was there when he realized the impact that art could make on others in the same way it did for himself. Keith would go on to be invited to a number of exhibits in different cities including Los Angeles, Fort Worth, and cities in Michigan and on billboards in Nashville as well as being featured in Art Market Magazine. “I never get over the feeling that i have when someone tells me that my art connected with them. All i ever wanted to do with art was make people feel seen, heard, and understood.”
Throughout his art career, many have tried to buy Keith’s work and request commissions, even turning down an offer for $13,000+. However, Keith has had a constant strife with selling his paintings,
Recent Works
Recently Keith’s art has been centered around the topic of love and the many sides and dimensions of what it means to love and be loved. “I think i want to stick with the topic of love for a minute. Not to say i wont venture out because my mind is always everywhere i can easily be inspired by something random, but love is growing to be one of my favorite subjects. I think i’m going to move to this idea of personifying love, like if love was an actual person what would it look like, how would it act around people, what’s its emotions like?“
Check out this video interview with Keith Josiah as he talks about “Choosey Lover” 2021, 36×108″ one of his latest art pieces regarding the subject of love.