Keith Haynes: Altered Images

Born in London (1963), Keith Haynes’ work is a playful and often nostalgic exploration of popular culture, and in particular, popular music culture from his past to the present day.

Keith Haynes’ work is noteworthy for his interesting choice of materials. He passionately creates artworks from the ‘clutter’ of pop-culture. Sometimes he uses button badges, album sleeves, clothing, postcards, perhaps even paint or printing, but more often than not his chosen material will be vinyl records. Keith Haynes’ iconic artwork is mostly created from vintage vinyl records which are lovingly and obsessively collected by the artist at every opportunity. And whether it’s a graphically iconic portrait, a meaningful song lyric, or a map of a city or country, each artwork created from these records (or any medium for that matter) Haynes considers the subject and the object to be of equal importance within his practice.

“My introduction to art was through the graphic design of people like Jamie Reid and Ray Lowry which I collected on records sleeves, T-shirts and badges. These were the people that inspired me to go to art school. 30 years on, in a digital world where music is losing touch with the visceral and visual, my work explores this populist art form – album sleeves, record labels, badges and, of course, beautiful, black vinyl – not only as its subject but also as its raw material.”

KEITH HAYNES
On leaving Harrow College with a BA(hons) Haynes worked as a designer and director at the BBC where his work featured in some of the most influential music and arts programmes of the past 20 years. A selection of his video work was included in an exhibition of experimental and avant-garde television design held at the ICA.

His current work has been exhibited extensively in the UK and abroad and can be found in private collections in Europe, America, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia.