The Collection of Tracy and Chris Keys

written by Liz Goldner

photographed by Tom Lamb

The Heartfelt Collection of Tracy & Chris Keys

From its polished wood floors to its cleanly painted walls, spare contemporary furnishings and effective lighting, their home is designed to display their diverse collection of paintings, photographs and sculptures. A number of the works have contemporary themes, from alienation to personal sorrow and racial discrimination. And while some were completed early in their careers by artists who went on to great success, others were painted or sculpted by lesser-known figures.

Tracy began assembling their collection, which today numbers about 68 pieces, while working at the former Newport Harbor Art Museum (today the Orange County Museum of Art) as Membership Chairman in the early 1990s.

Upon entering their home, Tracy points to the large oil painting Heaviness by L.A.-based Enrique Martínez Celaya. Showing two small birds that are unable to connect, it expresses humanity’s alienation, she explains, adding that Martínez Celaya is “the most important living artist in our collection.”

One of Tracy’s favorite painters is Orange Countian Paul Bond, a longtime Festival of Arts exhibitor. The couple’s collection includes four humorous oils from Bond’s brush. Piglet’s First Beauty Pageant depicts a pig wearing a medal, Birthday Party features a cat on a pedestal wearing a party hat, Portrait of a 19th Century Industrialist shows another cat with a monocle, and The Emissaries features a dog. “Paul is all about magical realism,” Tracy says, adding that he is influenced by René Magritte.

Above Chris and Tracy’s dining room table are two large expressive photographs of faces by young Argentinian Flavia Da Rin. The untitled images depict a young woman and a young man with a cat on his shoulder. “The artist digitally manipulates the images to express a vision of her world and to distort perceptions,” Tracy explains, “as others never see us the way we see ourselves.” Hanging in the kitchen is Kim Abeles’s image of one of the country’s recent Presidents, George Bush in 30 Days of Smog, created with smog on a glass plate.

In the living room are two sculptures by Joe Brubaker. Captain Charles features a head reaching backwards with its face screaming, while Jacques has a more somber face, looking forward. Equally somber are the faces depicted in the oil Manet’s Olympia by Anna Baranda, who was 16 when she created it. The scene, which is copied from Édouard Manet’s original 19th century painting, shows a naked woman lying on a bed with a black servant behind her.

Oscar Magallanes’s Alta California illustrates a more current aspect of racial discrimination. In this painting, a young Latino pushes a flag-draped cart past a wall dividing him from the more affluent world. Equally political is Sandow Birk’s large acrylic on Masonite, Mundaka, a comment on the Basque separatist group ETA in Spain.

“These works are about the artist facing her own mortality,” Tracy says. “In 1982, she was given six months to live after being diagnosed with malignant melanoma. But she is alive today and is still making stunning paintings.”

The oldest work in the home is the 1961 black and white photograph Mirror Times Square, depicting a young woman in a crowded outdoor setting. It was taken by William Klein, “a self-exiled American who adopted Paris as his home,” Tracy points out.

While many more significant artists, including Lucy Gaylord, Tom LaDuke, Oz Ortega, Olga Sinclair and Terry Turrell, are represented in Tracy and Chris’s collection, one is worth special mention. About William Pérez’s There Is Always a Place, Tracy explains, “The colored pencil on paper in a Plexiglas box is an exploration of home and belonging. The artist’s father had taken him to see colonial homes on the coast in Cuba, which were later demolished.” She adds that “William agreed to make one more heart piece for our friend who was dying of cancer. He was selecting the art for an auction to be held after his death. This is a very special piece to us.”