Jenny Keate

B. 1964

Along the lines 2025, acrylic on canvas, 800 x 800 mm, $2400

Diverted, 2023, acrylic on birch ply, 400 x 400mm $1250

Closer to home, 2023, acrylic on birch ply, 400 x 400mm $1250

Restoration, 2023, acrylic on birch ply, 400 x 400mm $1250

Artist biography

Born in 1964, painter Jenny Keate grew up in Auckland. She graduated from the University of Otago with a BA (Hons) in English, then moved to Wellington, where she currently lives and works. Initially a librarian and website designer, Jenny retrained in Industrial Design in the 2000s, graduating with a BDes (First Class Hons) from Victoria University.

Highlights from her design career include exhibiting her handmade fibreglass lamps at The Dowse (White Light, 2001), The Suter Art Gallery (Living Room: The Third Goodman-Suter Contemporary Art Project, 2003), and Objectspace (Show Room, 2007). From 2013, Jenny transitioned to a dedicated focus on painting. She had her first solo show with Bowen Galleries, The Idea of North, in 2021. In 2023, she held a solo exhibition, Looking Sideways, at Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History.

Jenny’s paintings are primarily of, and about, the New Zealand landscape. She is interested in the stories we can read in landscapes – how the land shapes people and people shape the land. The spectre of human presence is often visible in the environments she portrays, with varying levels of impact – from roads slicing through valleys, to fields cultivated for crops. She paints in an abstract figurative style, often using strong geometric shapes to construct scenes that may possess ethereal elements and perspectives, but that still retain a sense of familiarity. The lovingly curated shades of green that have become associated with her work reflect a sense of genuine reverence for the subjects she dedicates her practice to.

Jenny Keate artist

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions