Keith Boadwee

Keith Boadwee, born in Meridian, Mississippi in 1961, is a master of transgressive art. Boadwee is best known for squirting paint onto canvasses from his anus. He lives and works in Emeryville, California. Boadwee graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor of Arts in 1989. He received a Master of Fine Arts from UC Berkeley in 2000.

Boadwee is an adjunct faculty member at California College of the Arts in Oakland, California where he teaches in the Sculpture, Painting and Graduate departments. He is also a visiting faculty member at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Favorable reviews

	“	Keith Boadwee is poignant. Keith Boadwee is fabulous and a bad-ass... Keith Boadwee is revolting. Keith Boadwee's work arouses me, and scares me; and makes me feel dirty and perverted... Keith Boadwee is a shit-kicker, a revolutionary, a shock-seeker. While his medium of photography could seem provincial, his application is raw, gutting, quasi-pornographic... (There, I finally said it.)	„
	—Christopher Stout

	“	He shamelessly, openly and fearlessly challenges the social constructions of gender identity- gay, straight and everything in-between.	„
	—Garth Amundson

	“	Which leads us to the best piece in the show "Untitled (piss in mouth)", which is quite simply Boadwee on his back, aiming a stream of urine into his own mouth. As a stunt it is full of self effacing narcissism, conflating Eros, humiliation, self sufficient grandiosity and an allusion to the spectacle that is the artist's way.	„
	—Jeff Jahn, Portland Art News & Reviews

Best-known image

This, from the 1995 series Purple Squirt, is the single most famous Keith Boadwee image:

A goateed, handsome young Boadwee at the zenith of his fame, and the apogee of his creative powers

Cautionary or negative reviews

	“	The Compass to Campus, an event that brings approximately 1,000 5th graders onto Western Washington University’s campus, will be occurring during the Keith Boadwee exhibit. To completely prevent any 5th grader from viewing (accidentally or otherwise) the exhibit, we will close the gallery for the entirety of that day, October 27th.	„
	—Viking Union Gallery announcement

	“	I can't help speculating that there is a potential health hazard here (put simply - he is presenting the public with materials that have come out of his bottom).	„
	—Horace Dunn

	“	Wow, this sick fuck is in Portland? You might call this shit art, I call it exhibitionist fetishism. Fucker deserves to get shitcanned if he's actually allowed to teach.	„
	—anon4234

Boadwee tells it

Apparently at an art exhibition, he holds a beer in his right hand, makes a gang sign with his left hand, and enunciates "R Kelly is in the house" in a singsong contralto. The camera then zooms in on the mouth of Boadwee's companion, emphasizing his amused approval. This video is only seven seconds long, and thus well worth your time.

The phallic repertoire

Boadwee's ouvre is not limited to anally-oriented art. His penile and testicular images also have garnered critical acclaim.

About missing Pics

Autumn Dopey, 1991. A salute to the beloved fairy-tale dwarf
Baby with Hearts Blue, 1991
Baby with Hearts Reversal, 1991
Cindy Sherman, 1992. An impression of the eponymous photographer and film director