For The Pit’s first online viewing presentation we’re happy to take you on a tour of Keith Boadwee’s studio, where he has been working on a new series of paintings during the time of the Covid-19 crisis. These latest paintings - playful portraits of smoking fish in various arrangements - act as self portraits for the artist. “There's a mood of reflection or contemplation and sometimes of joy or happiness… All of these images can function as metaphors for the isolation of artists in the studio. Hours and hours of turning inward, reflection, contemplation,” Boadwee says. The subjects are relatable to the viewer as well. We’re all in our own glass bowls at the moment, looking out onto a chaotic world. These latest works embody Boadwee’s well known humor and playfulness in both narrative and gestural paint application. Throughout his career his practice has embodied his unique sardonic sense of humor, which engage with painting’s history both critically and earnestly. Boadwee continually returns to the compositions of master painters, reworking their well known pieces and embedding them with his unique perspective, in this case one can’t help but see the fish paintings of Matisse through the lens of an isolated artist working in his studio during this unique and confusing time. Yet, they are not solemn or heavy, as is always the case with Boadwee’s work they remain playful, fun, and uplifting, while delving into more complicated emotions.

There is a dark humor in Boadwee’s choice to feature the animals smoking cigarettes. As he notes, “solitude is the last refuge for smokers.” Even before our current health crisis, cigarette smoking had become a lonely activity. Boadwee very rarely smokes but admits “this respiratory attacking pandemic has made me want to smoke more.”  

Boadwee also discusses the paintings as puzzles. His painting style is as loose as his subject matter and the shadows and refracted light within and around the fishbowls are not based on light’s natural behavior. Boadwee describes is as a drive to deliver the believability of the image. “The circles and squares and triangles push together to create the believable picture. If you look closer, they become abstract. An abstract composition of geometric forms forced together to make something that is ‘real.’”

“As much as the pictures are about isolation, they're also like puzzles. I'm trying to push each one into something different compositionally.”

-Keith Boadwee