Chris Keenan

Education

1995-97            Apprenticed to Edmund de Waal

1982-95            Worked as a professional actor in theatre and television

1978-81            University of Hull- BA Hons. Drama

1995-98            Postgraduate acting course - London

Fellow of the Craft Potters Association

Member of Contemporary Applied Arts

 

Solo Exhibitions

2006                  Beaux Arts Bath

2004                  Beaux Arts Bath

2002                  Primavera, Cambridge

2001                  White Gallery, Hove

 

Selected Group Shows

2006                  My Collection, CAA

                           Alpha House, Sherborne, Dorset

                           Joanna Bird Contemporary Ceramics

2005                  Table Manners - Crafts Council Gallery and currently touring the UK

                           International Ceramic Fair - with Clare Beck at Adrian Sassoon

                          Collect, the Victoria and Albert Museum

                           SOFA, New York

                           Spiral Gallery, Settle

2004                   Collect, the Victoria and Albert Museum Joanna Bird Contemporary Ceramics

                            Blackwell, Bowness-on-Windermere

2003                   The Mark of the Maker, Eton Applied Arts, Eton  

                            Totally Teabowls, Oakwood Gallery, Nottinghamshire

                            Bowls, Boxes etc., Carlin Gallery, Paris

                            Beauty Through Use, Gallery Yufuku, Tokyo

                            British Design Excellence – British Embassy, St. Petersburg    

                            Selected Summer Exhibition, Beaux Arts – Bath

                            30/30 Vision - Crafts Council Gallery, London & Tour

                           Teapots - Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh

                            Showcase - Crafts Council. Shop, London

  2002                  SOFA, Chicago  

                            The Tea Party - Bircham Contemporary Arts, Norfolk

                            Summer Show - Galerie Besson, London

                            Wohnen und Kunst, Hamburg

                            Brook Street Pottery, Hay on Wye

                           Contemporary Decorative Arts - Sotheby's, London

 

2001                  Focus - Contemporary Applied Arts, London

                          Blessed by Fire - Joanna Bird at Browse & Darby, London

                           Ombersley Gallery, Worcestershire

                          Focus - Roger Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow

                           Home Sweet Home -British Council Tour Scandinavia, Australia

2000                  Modern Form - Joanna Bird, London

                           In Focus - Ceramics - Sotheby's, London

 

1999                  Commemorative Millennium Mugs - Galerie Besson, London

                           Fine Art Society, London

                           Bankside Browser - Tate Modern, London

                           Connections - Rufford Craft Centre, Notts.

                           Domestic Ware - Galerie Besson, London

 

Public Collections 

Contemporary Art Society

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

Cleveland British Ceramic Art Collection, Middlesborough

York Art Gallery

 

Awards & Commissions      

2006                  Commissioned by Habitat to design an accredited range of tableware

1999                  Crafts Council setting-up grant

 

Artist Statement

I make pots that I hope can lead multifarious lives in domestic environments. Of the forms present in the work there are some I frequently re-visit and re- work - the beaker, the bowl, the bottle and the lidded jar. A particular love of the bowl continues to offer formal and technical challenges - I feel I could make them until the cows come home and still experience near equal degrees of satisfaction and frustration. All the work is thrown Limoges porcelain, glazed using combinations of tenmoku and a deep celadon, and then reduction-fired in a gas kiln to 1280° C.

                         

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