KEAN: Fleeting Skies
With 'Fleeting Skies', French artist KEAN presents a new body of work that blurs the boundaries between memory and imagination, presence and escape.
Maddox has previously showcased KEAN’s work twice — initially in the group show 'Summer Daze' (2023) and subsequently in 'Supernatural' (2024) — Fleeting Skies represents his debut solo exhibition in the UK. Here, he expands his signature language of flawless gradients into luminous landscapes that serve as emotional geographies; interior skies painted from remembrance and feeling.
While graffiti introduced KEAN to the expressive language of colour and form, photography provided structure and stillness into his compositions. Through doorways, portholes, and windows, these paintings quietly invite views to pause, reflect, and step beyond the canvas. His works invite us not merely to look at art, but to step through it.
For KEAN, time functions as more than a theme; it becomes a medium. His compositions capture the brief, almost invisible transitions in light at dawn and dusk. “Every second shifts the light; that’s the place I want to paint,” the artist remarks, framing his fascination with impermanence. Whether blurring the horizon line with a dry brush or echoing the gradient of a sky reflected in water, he paints not only what is seen but what is felt in fleeting moments.
Executed in layered acrylics, his pastel surfaces result from meticulous technique, each seamless gradient built from dozens of translucent coats pulsing with quiet energy. Stretching across two metres of linen, L’Aveu de tes yeux embodies this sensibility, its pastel haze hinting at a confession whispered at first light. Similarly, Hold me down with fever pushes the spectrum into molten magenta; its broad horizon pulses beneath the surface, shifting the mood between calm surrender and restless yearning.
Opening on 22 May 2025 at 12 Berkeley Street, 'Fleeting Skies' invites collectors to cross a painted threshold and discover landscapes that begin — and end — within.
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