Vale Michael Keighery: artist, advocate, educator

A great agitator, advocate, artist and educator – the visual arts sector mourns Michael Keighery.
Vale: Sydney artist Michael Keighery died earlier this month. The photo shows an Anglo-Australian man wearing a black and white shirt and glasses standing in a ceramics exhibition.

Sydney artist Michael Keighery (born 1949) died earlier this month, following a bout of COVID. His death has hit hard for the sector, which knew Keighery to be a great academic, thinker, advocate and artist.

“Michael Keighery was one of the greatest thought provocateurs of his generation,” wrote a Mansfield Ceramics spokeperson upon hearing the news, in a tribute shared by the World Craft Council of Australia (WCCoA).

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Gina Fairley is ArtsHub's National Visual Arts Editor. For a decade she worked as a freelance writer and curator across Southeast Asia and was previously the Regional Contributing Editor for Hong Kong based magazines Asian Art News and World Sculpture News. Prior to writing she worked as an arts manager in America and Australia for 14 years, including the regional gallery, biennale and commercial sectors. She is based in Mittagong, regional NSW. Twitter: @ginafairley Instagram: fairleygina