Fresh Art Daily (2004)

A picture of America. A picture puzzle. A cowboy on an ocher prairie, a small American town. A text: ranger with underground city. The words banish the deathly pale town to below the earth, upon which gallops the American myth. At the same time, it points to the city as a place of subculture. This painting is not unique. It belongs to a series of forty identical subjects. Forty originals from the studio of the New York painter, Steve Keene. For a price of five dollars each, these forty paintings have found buyers all over America, and their paths of distribution are as varied as their owners. Today, about 100,000 Steve Keene originals exist, spread over the North American continent, because he paints up to a hundred pictures a day: fresh art daily. Painting like pop music. We follow the trail of the forty rangers with underground city: A voyage through American landscapes, through myths and clichés, as well as through the trivial, droll, and perhaps unexpectedly adventurous everyday American life. Our journey will ultimately lead us to Steve Keene, in New York's subculture. Following the rangers' trails will also afford us a picture of America.