Background
Piper was born in Malta to a working-class family of African-Caribbean heritage and raised in and around Birmingham.
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Keith Piper
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Royal College of Artist
Career
He was first attracted to art as a response to the industrialised, decaying landscape of his youth. Quoted in his monograph Relocating the Remains he recalls being "interested in the aesthetics of peeling paint, rust and dereliction and the multi-layered look of fly posters when they become torn off". Piper went on to attend Trent Polytechnic, where he gained his Bachelor of Arts(Honours) in Fine Art in 1983, before graduating with a Masters Degree in Environmental Media at the Royal College of Art in London.
Although Piper’s early and student work made use of traditional fine art media such as paint and canvas (such as The Body Politic, 1983), from the late 1980s he became primarily associated with technically innovative work that explored multi-media elements such as computer software, websites, tape/slide, sound and video within an installation-based practice.
Piper first came to public attention when, in 1982, whilst still a student, he joined Eddie Chambers, the late Donald Rodney and Marlene Smith in what came to be known as the BLK Art Group. Their politically forthright exhibition "The Pan-Afrikan Connection" garnered media attention as it toured to Trent Polytechnic in Nottingham.
King Street Gallery in Bristol. And The Africa Centre in London.
In 1983-1984 a second touring exhibition, The BLK Art Group, was held at the Herbert Art Gallery in Coventry, Battersea Arts Centre in London and, again, the Africa Centre.
However, the group"s critique of institutional racism in and beyond Britain"s art world became a part of the impetus that led to The Other Story, a seminal survey of African and Asian artists at London"s Hayward Gallery in 1989 as well as the founding of the Association of Black Photographers and the establishment of Iniva, the Institute of International Visual Arts – some of which have exhibited Piper"s work. Piper continued to practise throughout the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, exhibiting work in prestigious galleries and museums around the world, including, in 1999, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, in 2007, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and, in 2012, Migrations at Tate Britain. Examples of Piper"s work are held in numerous public collections, including the Arts Council Collection Tate and the Manchester Art Gallery.
In 2002, Kieth Piper was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Arts at Wolverhampton University and has taught for several years as a Reader in Fine Art at London"s Middlesex University.
A Fictional Tourist in Europe, 2001
The Mechanoid"s Bloodline, 2001
The Exploded City, 1998
Four Frontiers, 1998
Message Carrier, 1998
Robot Bodies, 1998
Relocating the Remains, 1997
The Fictions of Science, 1996
Four Corners, A Contest of Opposites, 1995
Reckless Eyeballing, 1995
Terrible Spaces, 1994
Exotic Signs, 1993
Transgressive Acts, 1993
Another Step into the Arena, 1992
Tagging the Other, 1992
Trade Winds, 1992
A Ship Called Jesus, 1991
Step into the Arena, 1991
The Devil Finds Work, 1990
Chanting Heads, 1988.
