KEEGAN.

Multidisciplinary artist.
Connecting via LDN.

Keegan Webb (born 12th April, 1988 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa), works under the mononym KEEGAN, and is a multidisciplinary artist who has been based in London since he was 6 months old.

He specialises in digital, print and graffiti visual mediums, which he discovered organically through his early experiences with art, though he continues to expand into new areas including the moving image and sound.

The work's themes pertain mainly to mankind's relationship with technology, the psychology of interpersonal relationships, and an ongoing exploration of contemporary cultural phenomena.

KEEGAN states comics and manga from the '90s and 2000s, as well as the London and New York graffiti scenes of the same era as key influences to his aesthetic.

More recently, surrealism, expressionism, realism, pop-art, and superflat have fed into the conceptual aspect of the work.

Origin

Early Life & Influences

Shortly after birth, KEEGAN migrated to London with his mother and sister, living first in the East, then the North of the city.

Growing up, he spent time playing SNES and PC games, hacking any system he could get his hands on, and overclocking CPUs 'til they smoked.

Lurking comic shops, he dug the crates for niche comics and imported Japanese manga, sharing fan-subs on IRC and BitTorrent.

He began his lifelong journey as an artist by meticulously copying the work of his comic art heroes, such as Todd McFarlane and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. With a cheap scanner and an early version of Photoshop, he created his first digital work.

Graffiti Gonzo 

In the early 2000s, KEEGAN discovered hip-hop and began a graffiti adventure that took over his life for the next decade. Inspired by contemporary London graffiti writers including Panik ATG, and old-skool New York legends such as Futura, he had realised a passion for art and culture.

In 2009, after nearly a decade of observing from the sidelines, he launched launched The London Vandal - an underground online journal where he shared his experiences in the graff scene. Blessed with the oppourtunity to link up with local and international graff stars, he published words and pictures that resonated with a community of fellow obsessives.

Approximately seven years and 2,000 posts after founding the zine, he decided to step away from his gonzo journalism. Late-stage social media was in full-swing, and the net was changing. So was the graff scene. With feelings of nostalgia towards the graffiti culture of yesteryear and a desire to expand his practice, he was ready to seek new learnings and experience.

With a deep breath, he powered down The London Vandal's server for the last time, taking the archive offline, and accepting that only those who were there would remember.

Then, during the devastating Great Hard Drive Crash of 2016, most of the backup was lost for good.

Comics, graffiti and street-art had gifted him an introduction to a family of talented artists, from a diverse range of backgrounds and he vowed to one day join their ranks.

Circa 2010.

Current Practice

Addicted to subculture, KEEGAN continues to absorb new information and reference from fresh, unexpected and exciting sources.

Now working mosly digitally, his tools have evolved from spraypaint and ink pens to include a custom-built Windows 10 workstation, a Wacom graphics tablet and Adobe Photoshop for sketching, plus Adobe Illustrator for digitally "painting" final works as vectors.

A self-taught artist, his strength lies in an innate desire to develop practical skills, experimenting with different mediums including photography, videography, motion graphics, animation and 3D and music production.

That said, he still slaps stickers and paint walls with the crew.

The Mission Continues

KEEGAN's raison d'etre is to soak up knowledge and inspiration from a broad range of genres and art forms, through a continual cycle of deep dives, whilst retaining the influences of the hip-hop culture and the cyberpunk genre that first inspired him.

In recent years he has begun to study the art of storytelling and sequential images, which he hopes will allow him to deliver stronger narratives in his work.

His stated priority is currently evolution, as both an individual and and artist, through a deepening insight into psychology, childhood, trauma, disorders, relationships, addiction, therapy and healing - and infusing them into his work.

Investigations into art history fuel the development of his aesthetic and content, and exploring philosophies of Nihilism, Stoicism and Existentialism will manifest as hot takes in future works.

Connect

KEEGAN connects with people at his exhibitions, pop-ups, and on Instagram.
He interivews his peers about their own journies on YouTube.
Otherwise, he can be reached via email at keegan@bykeegan.com.