Ian McKeever began painting in 1969, following a degree in English Literature. His first solo exhibition was held in 1973 at the ICA, London. In 1989 he was awarded the prestigious DAAD scholarship in Berlin, which was followed in 1990 by a major retrospective exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, London. Since then his work has been exhibited on an international level, most recently at the Royal Academy of Arts, London and the Sønderjyllands Kunstmuseum, Denmark.
McKeever has held various teaching positions, including Guest Professor at the Art Academy in Frankfurt, Visiting Professor at the University of Brighton, and since 2006, Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy Schools of Art, London. In 2003 he was appointed a Royal Academician.
As well as a painter, McKeever is a gifted printmaker and has worked in etching, drypoint, woodcut and lithography. In 2008 a selection of his prints were exhibited at Tate St Ives as part of a tribute to the etcher Hugh Stoneman with whom he collaborated over many years.
McKeever's work can be found in many of the world's leading institutions: The British Museum, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, and the Tate Gallery in London; The Morat-Institut in Freiburg; the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art; the Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts in Vienna; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Yale Center for British Art in Connecticut, amongst others.
