Keith Pitts

Keith Pitts is an adjunct art instructor at Western Michigan University’s Gwen Frostic School of Art. Keith joined the Frostic School of Art in 2022. 

Keith recently relocated to Michigan from Wisconsin, where he was an Assistant Professor in Theatre Arts at Lawrence University from 2014-2018 and a working freelance Scenic Designer.  In 2017, Keith decided to walk away from his tenure reappointment to pursue an M.F.A. in Fine Arts and begin a new journey focusing on his studio art practice.   

Before teaching and working in Wisconsin, Keith enjoyed a successful seven years as a professor at Columbia College Chicago and a freelance designer in the Chicago Theatre Community.  His years working as a professional scenic and costume designer have given him a unique skill set to bring to his studio practice.  His work focuses on deconstructing traditional and personal definitions of painting to discover what a painting can become. His practice also centers around art as a gift, a strategy to challenge ideas of the commodification of art.  The themes that resonate with Keith and his current practice are the rhizome and rhizomatic thinking, duration (experienced time versus measured time), deconstruction of definitions, and drawing as recorded thought.