about
Keeley Haftner (1985) is a Saskatchewanian-Canadian artist based in the Netherlands whose artwork deals with garbage as a material and a concept – in other words, with matter out of place and time. She was born and raised on Treaty 6 territory on the traditional lands of the Cree, Saulteaux, Dene, Dakota, Lakota, Nakota, and Métis nations, to which she and her ancestors are deeply indebted. Her work has been exhibited internationally in the US, Canada, and Europe at venues including Schering Stiftung (Berlin), the Art Institute of Chicago (USA), and the Ceramic Museum of the Netherlands. Haftner received her BFA from Mount Allison University (2011) and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Fiber and Material Studies (2016). She was recently long-listed for Canada’s prestigious Sobey Art Award (2023).
Haftner has received and been short-listed for various grants, awards, and public commissions from organizations including BMO Financial Group’s 1st Art! Art Competition (2011), the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics (2021), and the University of Chicago’s Arts, Science & Culture Initiative Collaboration Grant (2015-16). She has participated in many residencies, including the European Ceramic Workcentre (NL), Vermont Studio Center (USA), Struts & Faucet Media Arts Centre (CA), Living in the Play: NIDO II (IT) and SÍM (IS). Haftner is the founder of Street Meet public art festival, Saskatoon (2013-2017), and a founder and curator of Public Access gallery, Chicago (2016-2018). She has given workshops and talks at galleries, universities, conferences and festivals including Transmediale (DE), Currents International New Media Festival (Santa Fe), and Open Engagement at the Queen’s Museum (NYC). Haftner produced site-specific work for the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Terrain Biennial (2021/2023), and received solo presentations of her work for This Art Fair, Amsterdam (2021/22). Selected publications include the 3D Additivist Cookbook (2016), the BAKSTEEN | BRICK exhibition catalogue at Kunsthal KAdE (2022), and Tesselescence and the Rhombillion Effect (Open Studio, 2019). Haftner is a 2018 and 2021 recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts Research and Creation Grant, and a Hague Artist with Stroom (NL).
