29th May 2021 - 26th June 2021
Chris Keenan - For Use and Decoration
Chris Keenan began his career as apprentice to potter Edmund de Waal. His first task was working with tenmoku and celadon glazes, a skill that has since become Chris’s specialism. In 1998 he established his own studio in South London, where he now works exclusively in Limoges porcelain, creating simple, hand thrown forms designed to enhance the pleasure of domestic rituals. Rhythm, repetition, and the organic nature of the handmade are central to his daily practice, resulting in the creation of ever more refined but subtly different collections of related shapes. His elegant tableware includes beakers, bowls, cups, teapots, jugs and pots for flowers, as well as his unique ‘rocking bowls’ and interactive ‘Extra-Curricular’ collections, all glazed in a distinctive palette of mirror-black tenmokus and blue-green celadons. Many of his collections pair simple ceramic shapes with surface pattern, or raised, incised and impressed detailing, and his work is often presented in ‘familial’ groups, in the style of an art installation, making clearer the importance of refinement and progression of form. In this collection for New Craftsman, Chris has created a series of bottles, beakers and ceramic spheres, and has enhanced his regular palette of glazes with the experimental addition of striking reds.
Chris Keenan’s work is held in private and public collections including those of the V&A in London, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and the Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art in Japan.
PLEASE REVISIT THIS PAGE ON THE 26TH OF MAY TO SEE ALL THE WORKS IN THE SHOW