Chris Keenan
Ceramics
Chris Keenan is an internationally recognized potter specialising in Limoges porcelain. His hand thrown tableware includes beakers, bowls, cups, teapots, jugs and pots glazed in a distinctive palette of mirror black and rust coloured tenmokus, and rich celadons. Good design is at the heart of his practice, and his works aims to enhance the sensory pleasure of simple domestic rituals.
Chris was born in 1960. He began his career as a professional actor, but turned to ceramics in his mid-thirties when he began a two year apprenticeship with Edmund de Waal, before establishing his own London studio in 1998. Most recently, Chris spent six weeks as Artist-in-Residence at the Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art in Japan working with local clays and glazes, where he was invited to fire work in the salt-glaze and noborigama kilns of Tomoo Hamada.
He is a Fellow of the Craft Potters Association, Chair of the Craft Pottery Charitable Trust, and is a Member of Contemporary Applied Arts.
Selected Solo Shows:
July 2014 New Craftsmen, St Ives;
June 2104 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh;
September 2013 Oxford Ceramics Gallery, Oxford;
February 2013 Beaux Arts, Bath;
May 2012 New Craftsman, St Ives;
January 2011 Beaux Arts, Bath;
January 2009 Beaux Arts, Bath;
June 2008 Roger Billcliffe FIne Art, Glasgow;
May 2006 Beaux Arts, Bath;
May 2005 Spiral Gallery, Settle;
April 2004 Beaux Arts, Bath;
June 2002 Primavera, Cambridge;
November 2001 White Gallery, Hove.
Selected Group Shows:
2014 Vessels – Contemporary British Ceramics – Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, Japan;
Out of Sight – CAA, London;
Craft Into Industry – CAA, London.
2013 Make It Slow - part of Art Unpacked, a Chrysalis Arts project, a UK touring exhibition;
British Ceramics Biennial – Spode Factory Site, Stoke-on-Trent;
Cheongju Ceramic Biennale – Cheongju, Korea;
Ceramics Now – Gallery at Bevere, Worcestershire.
2012 Domestic Matters – CAA, London;
Summertime Blues – Leach Pottery, St Ives;
Focus – CAA, London;
Hay Festival with the Bowie Gallery – Herefordshire;
Joze Art Fair with Zimmer Stewart Gallery – London.
2011 Tablescapes – Talbot House Gallery, London;
Decorex – London;
Tokyo Art Fair – with Gallery St. Ives, Tokyo;
Ceramic Biennial 2011, Award Exhibition – Stoke-on-Trent;
Functional Pots – Oxford Ceramics, Oxford;
A Day in the life of Vanguard Court – Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, Japan;
Collect - with Clare Beck at Adrian Sassoon, London.
2010 Starting Point Series II - Siobhan Davies Studios, London;
Handmade - Fortnum & Mason, London;
Festival Show - Bowie Gallery, Hay-on-Wye;
78 Derngate, Northampton.
Public Collections:
Victoria & Albert Museum, London;
Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, Japan;
Contemporary Art Society;
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford;
Gallery Oldham;
mima, Middlesbrough;
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool;
York Art Gallery.
Awards:
2006 Best in Show - Awarded by Grand Designs; Magazine at Origin - The London Craft Fair.
2005 Best Domestic Product - Evening Standard ; Homes and Property Award at the Chelsea Craft Fair.
1999 Crafts Council setting-up grant;
