VENISE is currently a Teaching Artist for the Beverly Arts Center in the historic Beverly Hills neighborhood of Chicago, IL. She was previously an adjunct faculty at Illinois Central College and Bradley University in Peoria, IL teaching Art Appreciation.
Keys is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary visual artist, educator, arts organizer, and art critic. Her Masters of Fine Art in Painting and Graduate Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies are from Illinois State University in Normal, IL. Her Bachelors of Fine Art in Painting is from Bradley University.
She has exhibited hand cut paper nudes in “Refreshing Feminism” at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, IL, “Declarations of Dependence” at Plus Gallery Chicago in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, IL, and “Proximities” at the Hartman Gallery of Bradley University in Peoria, IL.
Keys exhibited at Front Room Gallery in New York, and her metaobject sculptures were featured in the “47th Annual Black Creativity Juried Exhibition” at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, IL.
In 2017, Venise was an artist-in-residence at the School of Visual Art in New York, NY for the Painting and Mixed Media International Summer Residency Program. She spoke about her research and art practice on Black identity aesthetics and relationship to Black hair politics at the International Black Arts Movement Conference at Dillard University.
