Keith Duncan Mallett (born October 7, 1948) is an American

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, t ...

who has worked as a painter, etcher and

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelai ...

artist. His subject matter ranges from figurative to still life and abstracts. Mallett's work has been exhibited worldwide and is featured in corporate and private collections. He has also enjoyed considerable success with numerous sold-out limited-edition prints, and was given the commission to craft the official limited-edition print commemorating the 50th anniversary of

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color lin ...

's breakthrough into

major league baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

Biography

Early life

Mallett was born in

Roaring Spring, Pennsylvania Roaring Spring is a borough in Blair County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,392 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Altoona, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area History Roaring Spring was established around the Big Spr ...

."About the Artists & Writers," ''African-American Classics, Graphic Classics'' vol. 22 (Eureka Productions, 2011). His father Boyd Mallett was a veteran of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and was an

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

and

electrician An electrician is a tradesperson specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, transmission lines, stationary machines, and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the maintenanc ...

who died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which m ...

at the age of 33. Mallett was six at the time of his father's death. His mother, Dorothy Williams raised Keith, his two brothers Jason and

Ronald Mallett Ronald Lawrence Mallett (born March 30, 1945) is an American theoretical physicist, academic and author. He has been a faculty member of the University of Connecticut since 1975 and is best known for his scientific position on the possibility of ...

, and his sister Eve, alone. At twelve Mallet began painting as a hobby.

Career

Keith studied painting at the

Art Students League The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stud ...

and

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also adm ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. Both stints at college led his professors to encourage him to work professionally and he gained positions working for several of his professors. While in New York, Mallett began working for the music industry painting record covers for

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldw ...

and creating T-shirts for several well-known music groups. In 1980 he moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

to continue pursuing his art career. In Los Angeles he began working for Jam Power Records and began to exhibit his work in numerous galleries. Soon after moving to Los Angeles he moved to

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

to work with Front Line Graphics. He soon began to concentrate on painting fine art and African American art. With the worldwide success of "Generations", Mallett started his own company Keith Mallett Studio Inc. A partial list of Keith’s clients include:

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Ger ...

, Lenox China,

Franklin Mint The Franklin Mint is a private mint founded by Joseph Segel in 1964 in Wawa, Pennsylvania. The building is in Middletown Township. The brand name was previously owned by Sequential Brands Group headquartered in New York City, New York. It i ...

, New York Graphic Society,

Springs Industries Springs Global is a Brazil-based multinational corporation engaged in the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of packaged textile and non-textile home furnishings. It makes textile goods, such as sheets, pillows, bedspreads, towels and bath rugs, ...

, Icon Shoes and Canadian Art Prints. His favourite medium is etching.

Movies, television and books

A variety of movies and television shows have featured Mallett's work, including

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

's ''

Mighty Aphrodite ''Mighty Aphrodite'' is a 1995 American comedy film written, directed by, and co-starring Woody Allen, alongside Mira Sorvino, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Rapaport, and F. Murray Abraham. The screenplay was vaguely inspired by the story of '' ...

'', ''

Soul Food Soul food is an ethnic cuisine traditionally prepared and eaten by African Americans, originating in the Southern United States.Soul Food originated with the foods that were given to enslaved Black people by their white owners on Souther ...

'',

Ben Affleck Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Volpi Cup. Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educatio ...

's ''

Gone Baby Gone ''Gone Baby Gone'' is a 2007 American crime thriller film directed by Ben Affleck, in his directorial debut. Affleck co-wrote the screenplay with Aaron Stockard based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. The film stars Casey Affle ...

'', and Disney Channel's ''

The Famous Jett Jackson ''The Famous Jett Jackson'' is a coming-of-age television series for the Disney Channel. The show is about a boy named Jett Jackson ( Lee Thompson Young) who plays a teenage secret agent on a fictional show-within-a-show called ''Silverstone''. ...

''. His art has also been featured in books such as Charlotte Watson Sherman's ''Sister Fire'', Jonah Winter's ''How Jelly Roll Morton Invented Jazz'', and Ray Anthony Shepard's ''Runaway: The Daring Escape of Ona Judge'', and has been featured on the covers of '' Chicken Soup for the African American Soul'' and ''Chicken Soup for the African American Woman's Soul''.

Personal life

Mallett currently lives in San Diego with his wife Dianne. They have one son, Christopher, a classical guitarist studying at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

References

External links

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Blackartdepot
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mallett, Keith 1948 births Living people African-American artists People from Blair County, Pennsylvania Art Students League of New York alumni Hunter College alumni 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people