Bio
German born New Zealand based artist Christine Keller positions her work between textile design, craft, and contemporary art, new media research and innovation. She is interested in the clash of tradition and new technologies, and its social and political implications on communities and individuals. In recent years, people and the environment and the consequences for a future in times of climate change have become the focus of her action and production.

As a result of her involvement with the international textiles community (member of SDA (America), ETN (Europe), CTANZ, Creative Fibre, and PWN (all NZ)) she has been living away from her home country for over twenty years. Her work has been exhibited internationally since 1994 (Australia, Canada, China, Europe, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, USA) and has featured for example in the publications, Techno Textiles 1 and 2 (1998, 2005) by Marie O'Mahony, Warp and Weft (2012) by Jessica Hemmings, and Textiles – The Art of Mankind (2012) by Marie Schoeser. She is an award-winning designer, especially for the innovation of her woven and felted design work for 'Handweberei Rosenwinkel' (1998-2001) in Germany. Since 1994 she has been involved with the Centre for Contemporary Textiles in Montreal Canada where she developed an affinity with hand woven Jacquard work. Christine Keller holds a MFA from Concordia University (2004) and a Dipl. Des. In Textile Design from Gesamthochschule Kassel (1993) (equivalent to Masters), at the end of her Apprenticeship in Loom Weaving in Hamburg she has been awarded as the Best New Hand Weaver in Germany in 1987. After her MFA she has investigated electronic textiles as associate researcher at XS-labs in Montreal, with Prof Joanna Berzowska as main investigator. Christine has taught Textile Design, Weaving and Fine Arts in Germany, Mongolia, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. In July 2005 she was invited to come to the Dunedin School of Art at Otago Polytechnic as Academic Leader of the Textile Section and held that position until restructuring in 2010. Since 2011 she has been dreaming of a place where people can come together and learn and produce textile work, especially weaving, and where she can share her knowledge while there is also space for her own growth as an artist. In 2013 she started to teach community weaving classes. Today Dunedin’s LoomRoom, her custom built, self-funded studio is run like a social enterprise and has become an institution in Dunedin and Otago with about 25 students of all ages and backgrounds per term. In 2016 Christine became dual citizen of New Zealand and Germany. She lives with her husband in Dunedin.

Selected Recent Exhibitions

2022 Art + Science - Life is a Gas, Group Exhibition in collaboration with Otago University, Museum and Polytechnic

2022 Ngahere - The Bush Of Aotearoa - travelling group show of Professional Weavers Network of NZ
2021 Art +Science - Earth caught in stone, Group exhibition in Collaboration with Otago University, Museum and Polytechnic
2019 Art +Science - Art and Water; Mountains to the Sea, Group exhibition in Collaboration with Otago University, Museum and Polytechnic
2017 Art +Science – Art and Genetics, collaboration with Pam McKinlay; Group exhibition in Collaboration with Otago University, Museum and Polytechnic
2016 Cloak – Variations on a Theme, travelling group exhibition with PWN
2016 Art +Science – Art and Space, Pam McKinlay with Christine Keller, Group exhibition in Collaboration with Otago University, Museum and Polytechnic
2013 Christine Keller – my works so far, Solo exhibition Dunedin School of Art Gallery

Her work is collected by

Hamburg Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts)
Deutsches Märchen und Wesersagenmuseum, Bad Oeynhausen (German Fairytale Museum)

Selected Awards

2001 Alen-Mueller-Hellwig Award for submission to the culture of Northern Germany, Lübeck, Germany
2000 Innovation Award, Innovation State Award of the Lower Saxony Chamber of Crafts, Peine, Germany
2000 Förderpreis Lower Saxony Award for the Designing Crafts, Hanover, Germany
2000 Merit Award “Measure for Measure” exhibition at the 11th Surface Design Conference, KCAI Kansas City Art Institute, MO
2000 Textile Culture Haslach, 2nd Price, at international juried exhibition, Haslach, Austria
1994 Semi-Finalist at “The International Textile Design Contest of the Fashion Foundation” 1994, Tokyo, Japan