Keith Piper Biography
Keith Piper is a multi-media artist, curator, educator and writer. Keith
Piper’s work, throughout his long career, has been characterised by
three main elements, the interrogation of the official and colonial archives,
technical and artistic innovation, and a commitment to writing as a creative
and discursive process. Keith Piper, as an artist, is pre-eminent among
his generation. A generation of artists that includes such artists as Sonia
Boyce, Lubaina Humid, Zarina Bhimji, Sutapa Biswas, Isaac Julien, John Akomfrah,
Eddie Chambers. Though closely associated with the second generation of
Black British artists who emerged into the cultural life of Britain in the
1980s, Piper’s influence has reached beyond the boundaries of British
art and into the international arena. Keith Piper's contribution and importance
to contemporary visual arts practice has been recognised through the purchasing
of his work for national and regional collections in the UK. Piper’s
work is also present in museum and gallery collections in the USA and Europe.
Keith Piper, since 1986, when he brought his first computer, has been at
the forefront of developing digital media as a visual arts practice.
Piper was born in Malta in 1960, to Caribbean parents. Piper’s family
returned to Birmingham in 1963, where he completed his primary and secondary
education.
During the period 1984-2000, Piper worked almost exclusively as a professional artist, presenting exhibitions nationally and internationally, presenting lectures on his own practice, curating, writing, and undertaking major public commissions.
By the mid-eighties Piper was at the centre of an emerging field of inter-disciplinary multi-media practice. The 1980s ended with Piper having firmly established himself as a major figure in contemporary British art. As such he was included in Rasheed Aareen’s ‘The Other Story’ a major survey exhibition of post-war Black British Art, Hayward Gallery, London, 1989. 1989 also marked the emerging of an international audience for Piper’s work commencing with Piper's inclusion in the Habana Biennale. Piper’s move into the international arena was at a time when the British arts establishment were increasingly pre-occupied with the emerging wave of ‘Young British Art’ the YBAs, and turning their attention away from issues of cultural difference and diversity.
In 2000-2003 Keith Piper was appointed initially as a Visiting Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh USA in 2000, and then Assistant Professor of Art in 2001. During this period Keith Piper continued to exhibit internationally. In 2002, Keith Piper co-selected EAST International with Sebastian Lopez, Norwich Gallery, Norwich, UK. In 2002, at the University of Wolverhampton (the site of the first Black Art convention), Keith Piper was awarded an honorary doctorate for his artistic and creative achievements.
Keith Piper continues to work as an artist, writer and curator with forthcoming exhibitions in the USA and in Berlin, Germany (Autumn 2004). He currently lives and works in London and is employed as a Principal Lecturer of Media Production, School of Cultural & Innovation Studies University of East London, UK.
Further reading:
Keith Piper: Relocating the Remains, Edited by David Chandler. Monograph
Essay by Kobena Mercer. Published by Institute of International Visual Arts,
London 1997.
ISBN: 1 899846 10 7
Janice Cheddie,
Research Fellow, Cross-Cultural Contemporary Arts (AHRB), Goldsmiths College,
University of London UK.