John Keane was born in Hertfordshire in 1954 and attended Camberwell School of Art. His vivid, shocking, and often blackly comic paintings have focused on many of the most pressing political questions of our age.

He came to national prominence in 1991 when he was appointed as official British war artist during the Gulf War. His work has always been deeply concerned with conflict - military, political and social - in Britain and around the world. His subjects have ranged from Northern Ireland to Nicaragua, and from the British coal industry to the mass media. Most recently he has focused on the theme of assassination, (in particular the conspiracy theories surrounding the death of John F. Kennedy), the money markets and Rupert Murdoch's pervasive influence in the modern world.

All these are concerns more commonly associated with journalism than fine art. Yet through his paintings Keane confronts issues and explores their subtleties in a unique and penetrating way.