Phillip Keefe is traditional hand-tool woodworker currently based in Chicago, IL. He was introduced to woodworking at a very young age by his father, a hobbyist who built Queen Anne-style furniture in an old country workshop. Phillip was never a formal student of the craft. He began a self-guided education through books and museum exhibitions and ultimately embraced the pre-industrial methods that guide his work today. While he maintains a stubborn fidelity to the traditional ways of the craft, his aesthetic is clearly influenced by modern sensibilities. He considers himself a contemporary furniture designer and constantly challenges the way we register furniture in our day-to-day lives: not just as objects of utility, but as a means of creative expression.
StatementNature has long been a source of creative inspiration and it’s become more apparent in my recent work. In 2022 my furniture designs took physical cues from animals in my environment, from my dog Iggy to the insects that inhabit my property. The grace and rhythm of their movements fascinated me and became the theme around which I worked. Two series, entitled Iggy and Arthropod, explore this movement through experiments in shape and construction. They are legs that look like animate legs and give the illusion of movement. As I continue both series, the complexity of these shapes and their construction will become more exaggerated, blurring the lines between function and art.