Tom Keukenmeester, born in Adelaide, Australia is a contemporary Australian artist working in New York City.
“I am an Australian-born artist living and working in New York City whose practice centres on figurative ceramic sculpture and painting. My work draws on global histories of figuration, mythology, and decorative traditions to explore ideas of ritual, archetype, and systems of belief.
I draw on digital media and museum collections as material to be transformed rather than reproduced, queering and reimagining how archetypes and symbols evolve and echo across time. My influences range from Visigoth and Byzantine imagery to Iberian artifacts and Oceanic cosmologies. Within this visual language I often return to figures including kings, queens, idols, and mythic characters as vehicles through which devotion, power, and human transformation are embodied.
I create my sculptures primarily with earthenware and raku clays, hand-building each piece over several days using very few tools and techniques that have existed for millennia. This tactile and intuitive process allows forms to emerge with a sense of play, ambiguity, and intention. The resulting figures exist somewhere between relic, idol, and character. When translated into painting, these forms become avatars within imagined worlds where contemporary life and ancient traditions intersect, allowing archetypal figures to reflect on how power, belief, and identity continue to shape the present.”
Tom studied a Master of Art History at The University of Melbourne and The University of Adelaide (2019) along with Drawing and Painting at Adelaide Central School of Art (2016). He has exhibited extensively in Australia and has participated in several national and international residencies including at The Jam Factory, South Australia, Urban Arts Projects, Queensland and Taller Gingell, Barcelona.