The Steve Keene Art Book collects an iconic perspective of punk rock painting

New York artist Steve Keene might not be a household name to most, but for those in the indie rock world, he’s as well-known as Pablo Picasso. With artwork for Pavement’s Wowee Zowee and The Apples in stereo’s Electronic Projects for Musicians, along with his remarkably egalitarian and affordable approach to art–pieces usually sell for $5-10 and are made in an assembly-line fashion–you’ve likely seen Keene’s artistry on display and never even noticed.

In celebration of Keene’s decades of work, and the 300,000 or so works sold or given away over the years, executive producer Daniel Efram has put together a new book dedicated to telling the artist’s story and showing just what the man can do. Appropriately entitled The Steve Keene Art Book, it’s out this week from Hat & Beard and Tractor Beam. The collection of essays, images, and stories will fascinate anyone with even a passing interest in Keene’s work, and will definitely lead to you wanting to seek out a piece or two of your own.

We spoke by phone with executive producer Daniel Efram about Keene’s work and the six-year process of bringing The Steve Keene Art Book to life.

The Pitch: Given that you work with The Apples in Stereo, one has to assume that was a good line in on creating this book, but what was your original connection to the art of Steve Keene?

Daniel Efram: Well, actually, interestingly enough, I met Steve before I worked with the Apples. I met Steve in the mid-’90s. I started working with the Apples in 2000. I basically met him–I think it was in 1994. He was doing these shows–as I outlined in the book, there’s that a whole section on the venue–at an art space called the Threadwaxing Space.

That was a gallery art space and they had all these shows there. What ended up happening was I was working at a record label as my first job in New York and going to all these shows. There was a sort of indie-rock circuit of the ’90s in New York City. These few clubs that were there and Threadwaxing Space was a big part of it, for a short time. I went to shows and at this place, his stuff was strewn floor to ceiling. Literally, there was 14-foot high, some really crazy loft space-style walls, and he had hundreds of pieces on the wall.

In my early twenties–kind of new to the art scene, if you will–this was kind of like, “Ooh, I’m in a candy shop.” Here are some bands I’m interested that are playing and then there’s this artwork that’s strewn from floor to ceiling that you could buy at $1-5 apiece. People were clamoring for various pieces. It was just this grab bag of vibrant color and art, and that you could own it–this was a novel thing, that you could own handmade art. At that time in my life, it just was a revelation.

Like I said, there was a few clubs that we’d go to, and it just seemed like every club I went to–at the merch table, there was there was some Steve Keenes for sale, as well as the band that I went to see there’s merchandise.

Steve Keene, I don’t know how he actually did this, but he was industrious and he knew that he liked music. He was a DJ. He wasn’t always doing album art covers, but as you see in the book, his tributes if you will–his album art tributes–he wasn’t always doing those, but he was playing around with the scene and mixing his metaphors both visually and literally. It just kind of worked and because things were so inexpensive and it kind of fit that “do-it-yourself” merch table aesthetic, it just kind of blended into the scene. His work was always there and I was just fascinated that I could own some original artwork that I love so much.

Your enthusiasm is very evident. Is that what made you want to put this book together–to evangelize to the greater world?

Well, Steve’s an inspiration. He opened my mind to the ability to own artwork that was affordable. It would mean so much to me over time. I have pieces in my apartment, some of which are represented the book. I mean, I could have put all of my pieces in the book and it probably would’ve made its own book but I don’t have that many pieces. I think there are 400 different examples or something like that in the book.

I don’t have 400 pieces, but I do have a hundred pieces. The main thing is that when I wake up each morning, in my bathroom, I have a couple of pieces and I look at ’em each morning and I just smile and that’s inspiring. Some of these are dated from ’95. I made the book because I’ve woken up to him for 25 years or more and he’s inspired me. Where does the energy comes from? That’s very inspirational.

A Steve Keene reproduction of the cover to Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted from the interviewer’s own collection. // Photo by Nick Spacek

It seems like part of the appeal is that Steve Keene has a very unique, instantly-identifiable style, and the ability to look at something and know the artist makes you feel more high-brow than you might have otherwise.

That’s interesting. I think it’s inclusion. It’s part of a little wink-and-nod of like, “Oh, I know that artist.” Yeah, you do. Think about it: he’s made, produced, sold, and given away hundreds of thousands of pieces over the course of his 30 years. He’s affected thousands of people’s lives and to me, it just seemed obvious, as I continued to work with him and started to realize that he’s not archiving his work. The direct inspiration was that I curated a couple of shows for him. One of ’em, as you read about in the book, was at Shepard Fairey’s gallery in Los Angeles, Subliminal Projects. Working on this project, going through the process, the gallery wants pictures of everything that is submitted to the gallery for their shows. For most people that’s probably 10 to 20 pieces, but in Steve’s case, it was 800 pieces, 200 of which were individual different series.

Because he does multiples, he in essence had four of a kind. There was basically around 200 different pieces that need to be photographed for their own records. The direct reason I made this was that I curated a show I had to provide the pictures of the artworks to the gallery, then I realized, “That’s probably not been done before by Steve,” and I was crazy enough to actually facilitate that.

I didn’t really think much about it until the opening night of the show when we sold 550 of these pieces and there was a line the door that literally couldn’t sell anymore. There was people that didn’t get into the show. Literally, a line in Echo Park. They literally couldn’t get in. And I was just like, “Wow.” After maybe after a few months and able to rest and get some perspective, maybe this turns into a book and six years later, here we are talking.

One of the really excellent things about the book–in addition to being able to see multiples of Steve Keene’s work side by side, and to see how things have changed and evolved–are the various written pieces contained within the book. Quite a few of them are coming at it from that Threadwaxing Space scene, where they first encountered his work, but what’s fantastic about it is, like his work, it’s variations on a theme, but each one is completely unique.

I’m lucky enough that I’ve been able to see his work up close so often that I can kind of make heads or tails of how he operates, as well. His process is so interesting to me. I mean, here’s a guy that paints 50 pieces at a time. 12 sets, four of a kind each, in a chain-link fence cage that acts as his easel so that he can hang 50 pieces at a time. You start to realize, “How does the position of the wood affect the final product?”

What I started to realize is I could tell where on the eight-foot-high chain link the board was positioned based on the types of pink drips and splatter that accompanied each different row. If you’re working from top to bottom, there are more splatters on the bottom ’cause of gravity. He has more paint at the top. It then drips down. So, if you have a little bit more paint and splatter, you probably have a piece that was lower to the ground in his chain link fence easel positioning. Obviously, I’m getting into the weeds here, but this is what the book is. It’s about the weeds.

The Steve Keene Art Book is out this week from Hat & Beard and Tractor Beam