Barrett Keithley
Welcome to Barrett Keithley's website, the official home of Chicago-based artist Barrett Keithley. Through vibrant colors, layered textures, and powerful imagery, Barrett’s work celebrates African American culture, resilience, and beauty.
About the Artist
Barrett Keithley is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and community servant from the South Side of Chicago. He grew up in Roseland, also known as the Wild Hundreds, where his creative roots were shaped by both the challenges and the culture of his neighborhood. A self-taught artist with training in portrait and still life painting. Barrett uses his work to reflect the power, struggle, and beauty of the communities that raised him.What began as a personal outlet quickly evolved into a full-scale creative career. Barrett has produced major mural projects across the city — from the South and West Sides to the Loop — and commissions for organizations like NASCAR, The Lyric Opera, the Black McDonald’s Owners Association, and the Chicago Loop Alliance.
He is also the founder of a non-profit called Paint the City where he partners with Chicago’s youth to create vibrant public art that tells community stories, inspires pride, and fosters creativity. Additionally he owns Crown B Studios, a cultural platform designed to spotlight and support emerging Black creators.Barrett’s work draws from Afrofuturism, street art and ancestral memory. Whether exhibited in galleries or painted on city walls, his art is rooted in a mission of service: to show people their beauty and, in doing so, awaken their brilliance.
A hidden World-About Barrett’s Process
Barrett Keithley begins each painting with line work that serves as both foundation and narrative. Sometimes these lines resemble people’s side profile or people’s hands. Other times, they unfold as fully realized abstract compositions in their own right, each capable of standing alone as a finished artwork.
As layers of paint build, the line work recedes but never disappears. It continues to shape the composition, guiding rhythm, balance, and spatial flow. Each subsequent layer also holds its own integrity, contributing a unique narrative to the evolving work. Fragments of architecture, hints of abstraction, and hidden structures converge to create a singular, multilayered visual experience.
Keithley’s paintings are not merely surfaces of color and form—they are layered worlds, each one grounded in the unseen yet deeply felt, where every layer could exist as a painting in its own right.
The People Series- A Limited Edition Collection
Barrett Keithley’s People Series is a powerful, episodic collection of installations unfolding in four chapters—each a story, each an experience, each a collector’s treasure. These works do not dictate their meaning; instead, they invite interpretation, placing the narrative in the hands of the audience.
Every episode shines a light on Black culture while embodying strength, resilience, joy, and beauty. They serve as both mirrors of lived experience and windows into new ways of seeing.• Episode 1: Royale — A proclamation of dignity and regality, celebrating Black excellence and the nobility found in everyday life.
• Episode 2: The Constitution — A challenge and a reminder, asking who has been included, excluded, and redefined within America’s founding promises.
• Episode 3: Her — A tribute to the Black feminine spirit, honoring its power, grace, and unshakable presence.
• Episode 4: Angry Man — A raw, unflinching exploration of vulnerability beneath anger, reframing rage as a language of survival and resistance.Each work in the People Series is a collector’s item—exclusive, rare, and steeped in meaning. There is no guarantee these pieces will ever be released again, making every acquisition a moment in cultural history.
You can view select works now at the virtual gallery, where a limited number are available for purchase. Step inside, explore, and claim your piece of the story before it disappears.