Chris Keenan works exclusively in porcelain, given no choice by Edmund de Waal to whom Keenan worked as an apprentice from 1996-98. "Your first 1000 pots will be the hardest" De Waal. Keenan works with a limited range of glazes and his mastery of these materials is widely admired.
Chris Keenan began his career as a professional actor, but turned to ceramics in his mid-thirties, establishing his own London studio in 1998. He makes both functional and non-functional work. These are largely made in small batches and for these, repetition is key. Keenan says ‘the word repetition belies the reality that each piece represents a separate examination of the form in question and is a nuanced response to a previous incarnation.’
Chris Keenan has undertaken residencies at Blackwell, the Arts and Crafts House, in Cumbria and 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 and has work in the following Public Collections;
V&A, London
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, Japan
Gallery Oldham
Lakeland Arts, Cumbria
Contemporary Art Society, London
mima, Middlesbrough
York Art Gallery, York
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool