Keith Buswell graduated with a BFA in art University of Nebraska--Lincoln. He works with various printmaking processes such as screen-printing, intaglio and mono printing and dabbles in drawing and multimedia. He currently is a member of Karen Kunc’s Constellation Studios where he creates his prints. His work has been shown in the United States, Egypt, Dubai, France and Italy. Notably, Keith received the Perry Family Award in 2018 and second place in the 40 Under 40 Showcase in Annapolis, MD and third place at the Under Pressure print show in Fort Collins, CO. He is a contributing artist to issue 23 and 28 of The Hand Magazine. In 2021, Keith became curator/co-captain of the Tugboat Gallery in Lincoln, Nebraska. He also attended residencies at The Kimmel Harding Nelson Center in Nebraska City, Nebraska and at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Hyattsville, Maryland. Originally from Council Bluffs, Iowa, he currently lives in Lincoln with his husband Brad and his dog Max.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022 Off the Block, Foundry Art Centre, St Charles. MO
2022 Four Rivers Print Biennial, Carbondale Community Arts, Carbondale, IL
2021 Under Pressure, Webster Arts, St Charles, MO
2021 Printwork Exhibit, Artists Image Resource, Pittsburg, PA
2021 Mid America Print Council Juried Members’ Exhibition, Drewelowe Gallery. Iowa City, IA
2021 11th Triennale Mondiale de L’stampe, Galerie Municipale d’Art Contemporain, Chamalieres, France
2021 Nebraska Biennial, Gallery 1516, Omaha Nebraska
2021 27th Parkside National Print Exhibition, UW-Parkside Galleries, Kenosha, WI
2021 41st National Print Exhibition, Artlink Contemporary Gallery, Fort Wayne, IN
2021 Star Children, Bradbury Art Museum, Jonesboro, AR
2021 Fibers Exhibition, Word Revolt Art Gallery, Online
2021 The Inked Image Fine Art Print Show, Sidestreet Arts, Portland, OR
2021 Printmaking at the Edge, The Art Center, Dover, NH
2020 Southern Printmaking Biennale IX Juried by Wes Beeler, Bob Owens Art
2020 Four Rivers Print Biennial, Carbondale Community Arts, Carbondale, IL
2020 Galex 54, Galesburg Civic Art Center, Galesburg, IL
2020 Ink Matters, Downtown Gallery, Kokomo, IN
2020 March Group Art Show, Jones Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2020 Under Pressure: National Printmaking Exhibit, Lincoln Center, Fort Collins, CO
2020 In Full Bloom, J. Mane Gallery, online
2020 Pulling Prints, Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, Narrowsburg, NY
2020 Dirty Fingernails, Foundry Art Centre, St Charles, MO
2020 BORDERS – What’s Up With That?, Civil Disobedience Queer Arts Festival, Athens, Greece
2020 Ink:New Prints, Site:Brooklyn Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2020 Printmaking Plus, D’Art Gallery, Denver, CO
2020 Midwest Queeritivities, Foster Gallery, Eau Claire, WI
2020 Yellowstone Art Auction Exhibit, Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, MT
2020 40 Under 40 Art Exhibit, Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, Annapolis, MD
2020 Delta Small Prints Exhibition curated by Gretchen L. Wagner, Bradbury Art Museum, Jonesboro, AR
2019 Botanicals, Art Room Gallery, online
2019 10 x 10 Art Show, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, Hyattsville, MD
2019 Obsession, Light Art Space Gallery, Silver City, NM
2019 Schwa Show: A National Art Juried Exhibition, Emerge Gallery, Greenville, NC
2019 Original: Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Prints, Crooked Tree Art Center,
Traverse City, MI
2019 Fresh!, Eisentrager-Howard Gallery, Lincoln, NE
2019 Works on Paper, Webster Arts, St. Louis, MO
2019 The Social Policing of Gender and the Criminalization of Queerness, Amos Enos Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Abundance curated by Bob Swearengin, Venessa Lacy Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2019 Under Pressure Print Show, Lanesboro Arts, Lanesboro, MN
2019 Boston Print Biennial, Lunder Arts Center, Cambridge MA
2019 Caspfest, Charles Adams Studio Project, Lubbock, TX
2019 39th National Print Exhibition, Artlink, Fort Wayne, IN
2019 That’s What She Said Exhibition, Penn State University, University Park, PA
2019 State of the Union, Pool Art Center Gallery, Springfield, MO
2019 Paper & Clay, Utah State University, Logan, Utah
2019 Imprimo, Gallery 9, Lincoln, NE
2018 Out on a Limb, Foundry Art Centre, Saint Charles, MO
2018 Schwa Show, Emerge Gallery and Art Center, Greenville, NC
2018 Printed Image 7 juried by Melanie Yazzie, Alice C. Sabatini Gallery, Topeka, KS
2018 Piece of Paper, St. Louis Artist’s Guild, St. Louis, MO
2018 Gallery 9 July Invitational, Gallery 9, Lincoln, NE
2018 That’s What She Said, AFA Gallery, Scranton, PA
2018 Vanessa Lacey Small Works Show, Kansas City, MO
2017 Social Thoughts, Union St Gallery, Kokomo, IN
2017 Santa Reparata Student Art Show, Florence, Italy
2017 Being Human Pop Up Show, Lincoln, NE
2016 Nebraska National Juried Exhibition, Lincoln, NE
2016 Invisible Cities, Constellation Gallery, Lincoln, NE
2016 Earth Day Art Show– Crescent Moon Coffee Shop, Lincoln, NE
2015 Porta – Eisentrager/Howard Gallery, Lincoln, NE
2015 Undergraduate Show - Eisentrager/Howard Gallery Lincoln, NE
2015 The Fourth Student Inernational Small Print Show- El Minia University, Minya, Egypt
2015 Santa Reparata Student Art Show, Florence, Italy
Solo Exhibitions
2022 That Which Connects Us…, Art Reach of Mid Michigan, Mt. Pleasant, MI
2021 Rooted, Clear Lake Arts Center, Clear Lake, IA
2021 Tropistic, Lux Center for the Arts, Lincoln, NE
2020, That Which Connects Us…, Citylight Arts Project, Omaha, NE
2019 (as)Symmetrical, Tugboat Gallery, Lincoln, NE with Camille Voorheees
2019 Unmentionables, iii of Cups, Lincoln, NE
2018 Uprooted, City-County Gallery, Lincoln, NE
2015-2016 Roots, Jack’s Bar, Lincoln, NE
Awards
2020 Third Place Under Pressure Juried Exhibition
2020 Second place at 40 Under 40 Exhibition
2020 Featured on Ponder Away, Ponder Savant Blog
2020 Featured on NYC Phoenix
2019 Denbo Fellowship at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Hyattsville, MD
2019 Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts resident
Prisma Art Prize Finalist
Emerging Artist Scholarship recipient for Lincoln Art’s Festival
2018 Perry Family Award
2018 Special Merit Light Space &Time Botanicals Art Exhibition
Entry Fee Award, 2018 Undergraduate Art Exhibition
2017 First Place Laurus Art Competition
Publications
The Hand Magazine, Issue #23, 2019
Laurus Literary Magazine, 2019 Edition
That’s What She Said Catalog 2018
Laurus Literary Magazine 2016 Edition
Laurus Literary Magazine 2017 Edition
Teaching Experience
2016 Lincoln Craft Studio teaching silk-screen processes
Plant Culture
Community is a notion that we are not only connected by not only our heritage or proximity, but also through an exchange of ideas and a desire to help one another. Trees personify this complex and vital system. In 2016, ecologist Suzanne Simard wanted to find out if trees could talk to each other. What she found was a network of fungi underground connecting the roots of trees that not only relayed information to each other, but also provided nutrients for young and dying plants. This discovery is an embodiment of community.
Through the imagery of trees, That Which Connects Us… examines those networks as an analogy of our interpersonal relationships. Using different paper in a collection of nonstandard prints, I am emphasizing the various backgrounds these communities represent. Layers of trees, trapped within the confines of the copper plate, are forced to connect to each other through their overlapping, the drawn line, and string.
Arboreal pictures act as a symbolic language for us to see how connected we are. By using different types of trees around my community in Lincoln, Nebraska I am portraying systems of living together. We need our farmers, teachers, and artists just as much as trees need a forest. The threads that connect us may not be as visible as my work prescribes, but they are there; a continuous interconnection to one another.
Queer Culture
I am constantly amazed at the labels I ascribe to. Culture establishes them to categorize each another into stringent definitions that simultaneously ease and stoke our fear of the other. I have learned that these stereotypes are nothing more than vases constraining the actual life that exists in all of us. At times they are used to define us to others. At times they are used against us through hate and fear. Understanding, discerning, and dissecting them allows us to combat their clinical dichotomy over our lives, while expanding our tolerance for new ideas.
This body of work I have titled Unmentionables uses floral symbols juxtaposed to undergarments and taboo accessories to reveal flagrant and fragrant misconceptions surrounding the sexes. Utilizing the stark and graphic nature of the pencil on paper against the feminine backdrop of ready-made fabric, acknowledging my own preconceptions of the gender spectrum with cultural meanings of botany. These stereotypes become the artificial amphorae that contain life. By exposing the layers just above our skin, unveiling comical and controversial imagery normally deemed inappropriate, this work not only showcases my own preconceived notions of gender but also the generic symbolism flowers also hold.
While the urn may seem anathematic, the joining of floral adornments creates a childlike and whimsical look at otherwise controversial subject matter. For whatever reason, our society has emphasized meaning behind nature, from the innocence of the daisy to the strength of the sunflower. There is a bouquet for every occasion and a label for every person. Unmentionables marries these two concepts into a comprehensive evaluation of my personal biases juxtaposed to societal evaluations.
Creating a conversation is the ultimate goal of this body of work. Establishing the fact that our own idiosyncrasies undermine our knowledge of actual issues and people, denies our ability to accept each other in terms of a beautiful prism of diverseness. My work is the queer filter by which I categorize and process how the rest of the world views me with how I perceive myself. I have learned that beneath the surface of the genders exists a gamut of voices that have historically been shoved in the closet or tucked away in drawers.
Viral Culture
We are drawn to our circles; those niche environments that provide us an echo chamber of like-minded views verifying our own biases. Clustered together in our safe zones we find strength in our numbers. This pandemic has isolated us with these groups even more, finding solace alone in groups gathered via Zoom or social media platforms. In essence, we long for our views to go viral. It is within this cancer ridden nature that this work was derived. Stuck in our bubble, we cluster together on this world, seeking solace from the disease of loneliness.
These sculptures made of paper, fabric, and faux fur not only represent our minimal world view, but the stress of dealing with illness. Seeing friends contract HIV, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and concluding with my father’s death due to brain cancer, I became enthralled by the concept of disease. Our psyche’s, represented by the wall, are riddled with loss and regret, pockets of disease which gather and froth. This project is a way for me to cope with those feelings in ways only an artist can, through color and texture. Here we are, stuck in our bubbles while the real enemy eats us inside.
