Chris Keenan
Artist Statement
Chris Keenan makes wheelthrown porcelain pots
Shop Chris and Carina ⟶
Visit Website ⟶
Chris shares 7C Vanguard Court with Carina Ciscato ⟶
More about the artist
I have been making pots for twenty-five years. I started in late 1995 as Edmund de Waal’s first apprentice and worked with him for two years, learning techniques that I still employ but, thankfully, with increasing skill over the years. I have been in my own studio since 1998 and have shared that space for the past 17 years with the Brazilian potter, Carina Ciscato.
My work is always thrown and turned on the wheel; my clay of choice is Limoges porcelain; the glazes are predominantly tenmoku and celadon and combinations thereof - it is a restricted palette but I am still finding fresh ways to utilise them; the work is reduction-fired in my gas kiln.
I make work for interior spaces – for use and decoration. Mugs, cups, teapots, pourers, beakers, lidded pots, pots for flowers. I also go off-piste occasionally with what I term my “extra-curricular” work – series or groups of pots/ceramic forms that owe less to function, often with an interactive element. Most recently I have been exploring lines of pots that come under the name of vistas or “scapes” and which contain a visual narrative that travels across the group.
I exhibit widely across the UK and internationally. My work is held in the permanent collections of several museums including the V&A, the Ashmolean and the Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art in Japan. I have undertaken residencies in the UK and Japan and have been teaching in the UK and abroad since 2011.
Recent Solo Shows
November 2020 Beaux Arts, Bath
July 2018 New Craftsman, St Ives
November 2016 Beaux Arts, Bath
July 2016 "houseplace", Blackwell, The Arts & Crafts House, Cumbria
