Keith Coventry typically works in a series and it is characteristic of his highly conceptual practice that he will explore a theme through the use of multiple media. Coventry in a sense creates an intellectual framework for each project which he then proceeds to explore systematically, working out his ideas in oils, bronze, etching and photogravure techniques until his argument is made to his own satisfaction.

The 'Crack City' body of work had its inception with a series of five Malevich-inspired white abstract paintings, which relate to the well-known 'Estate' painting series with which Coventry made his name in the 1990s. Like the 'Estate' paintings the square form in these abstracts are the footprint of a group of tower blocks in London, popularly known as 'Crack City' because of their social problems and history of drug use.

The paintings, prints and bronzes, in referencing Georgio Morandi's metaphysical still lives of the 1920s and 1930s bring twenty-first century subject matter into intriguing counterpoint with this earlier age. Coventry's work makes no claim to any form of social commentary, which might suggest parallels with Hogarth and his gin drinkers, nor does the intense focus on abject, homemade crack pipes offer any suggestion of a 1960s inspired opening of the Doors of Perception. Rather the work seems to connect far more closely with Morandi's notions of the portrayal of the mysterious life of objects. Coventry's acute observation of the paraphernalia of crack addiction, along with his image of three women smoking crack in one of the large photogravure prints, sets up a framework in which all of these ideas, and more, are held in delicate equilibrium.

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