Lehmann Maupin presents keep mojave weird, a suite of new works by acclaimed British painter, writer, and musician Billy Childish. In his newest series, which encompasses both landscape and portrait paintings, Childish depicts the western United States in scenes from California—from the Mojave Desert and Joshua Tree to lush Lake Tahoe. keep mojave weird closely follows Childish’s recent exhibition Billy Childish: the becoming unbecoming at Yi Space in Hangzhou, China, which closed in late 2025. During the opening reception in New York, Childish will stage a reading from his latest collection of selected poetry, The Uncorrected Billy Childish (only poets piss in sinks), Tangerine Press/L-13 (2026). The reception will be held on January 15th, from 6–8 PM, with the poetry reading beginning at 7 PM. Two chapbooks of new poetry exclusive to this event will also be available. 

Based in Kent, England, Childish’s artistic practice is wide ranging and prolific. In addition to painting, the artist moves seamlessly between poetry and prose, punk rock, blues, and folk music, photography, multiples, and printmaking. Over the course of his decades-long career, he has published 5 novels and more than 40 volumes of confessional poetry, as well as recorded over 170 LPs. Childish’s oil paintings are highly recognizable and often characterized by their striking immediacy. The artist begins each work by sketching the underlying composition in charcoal before moving into his signature range of vibrant and earth-toned oil palettes. His subjects are frequently drawn from his immediate environment—the North Kent landscape, members of his family—but can also derive from further afield, drawing on personal, philosophical, and spiritual concerns, including scenes from the Austrian Alps, the Pacific Northwest, or historical photographs. Seen through Childish’s lens, these subjects are rendered at their most essential, appearing timeless and permanent.