The work of contemporary artist Keith Francis shines an unrelenting light on an array of social, political and environmental issues. His highly refined and meticulously constructed sculptures and mixed media hybrids are informed by extensive research into subjects that some might find liberating and others discomforting. But nonetheless, the work is powerful, provocative and worthy of serious engagement.

For example, Francis’s “Democracy, It’s A Game” repurposes a 1969 Gottileb pinball machine, outfitting it with vibrant graphics that ask viewers to reconsider the very meaning of contemporary democracy in the United States.

Pinball is a perfect metaphor. The possibility of a tilt reflects the uncertainty of the outcome of the electoral process, no matter the skill level of the players.

Francis earned a M.F.A in Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA in 2018, a B.A. in Photography and Visual Communications from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA in 1989, and studied Fine Art Photography at Maine Media Workshops and College, Rockport, ME.

Francis has exhibited extensively and his artwork is in private, public and museum collections worldwide.