CHRIS KEENAN 29th May 2021 - 26th June 2021
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‘F O R U S E A N D D E C O R A T I O N ’ Chris Keenan
Chris Keenan began his career as apprentice to potter Edmund de Waal. For the first project de Waal set him, Chris chose to work with a combination of celadon and tenmoku glazes, a skill that has since become his 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.
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“Some pots that I’m considering for this show were put aside from firings before Christmas; some are from a firing in early April; some are currently sitting in their most inert (for me) state of being, following a bisque firing; and some are still just a lump of soft clay in a bag. But I’m getting there. After the strangest of years that has reached, incredibly, a stage of seeming almost ordinary, I have consigned the losses that have occurred over the past months to a place where they will probably never be visited as they might have been in a time before we knew what a lockdown was. The impetus to make has been fugitive. It waned but thankfully seems to be on the wax again. Lassitude kept me from my wheel in the long dark months of winter but, returning when the days began to lengthen, I found my capability altered…from uneasy rest came restoration. And changes came too - sparks to kindle. I am delighted to be showing again with The Newcraftsman at a time when the need to hold ourselves apart also eases.” May 2021
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1. Tiny tenmoku bottle with red spot 2. Set of six green beakers with tenmoku 'script' 3. Tenmoku rocking bowls 4. Pair of mottled bottles See the full collection online
Photography credits: Pots - Michael Harvey, Chris Keenan Portraits - Tom Bunning
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