About Keira Rathbone

Keira Rathbone at Eye Feast 2026: typictions of food and drink

Regent's Park Gallery  ·  1 June 2026

Most artists pick up a pencil, a brush, a chisel. Keira Rathbone picked up a typewriter — and then refused, for the next 23 years, to put it down. Her drawings are made of letters, dots, dashes and asterisks, hammered onto paper through a portable machine she's carried around London and far beyond, building them mark by mark, key by key. She has six new works for Eye Feast 2026, and they are quite unlike anything else in the show.

About the artist

Keira Rathbone has been developing her unique typewriter-art technique for more than 23 years. It came about by chance — she wanted to type but did not know what to say, so she found another way. By treating the typewriter's characters as shapes and textures, she lets the subject dictate which character to 'typict' it with, then taps away, totally absorbed by the chosen subject and the mechanics and varying intensity of the mark.

Her finished works on paper she calls typictions or typics, words she invented and which were abbreviated by her late father. She works largely from life, gathering conversations as she types — each one a chance connection with a passer-by curious about what she is doing, or moved to share a memory of an old typewriter at home, or both.

Keira has exhibited across London, the UK and internationally in both solo and group shows; she has typed at everything from grass-roots festivals to high-end corporate events; and she has been featured on BBC regional, national and World News, on SKY's Landscape Artist of the Year, on The One Show, and on BBC Radio 2, 4 and 6.

The work in the show

For Eye Feast 2026, Keira brings six works covering thirteen years of practice — the centrepiece a 2010 Soda Syphon & Carbon Copy Soda Syphon diptych which has never previously been exhibited, alongside her 2021 oyster series and a 2025 collaged piece reworking earlier material into something new.

Drinks in the Hedge (2026)

A new typiction made on location, in the hedge — the cut-out shape and dense fields of marks build up a near-figurative scene from nothing but punctuation and letters. The largest of her originals in the show. £1,900.

Soda Syphon & Carbon Copy Soda Syphon — Diptych (2010)

Two panels side by side: the original drawing of the soda syphon, and its carbon copy. Made in 2010 — fifteen years ago — and never previously shown in public. The diptych measures 41 × 27 cm unframed and is presented framed at approximately 51 × 37 cm. £3,150 (framed).

Oyster Pearl Open — Limited Edition Print (2021)

From Keira's 2021 oyster series, a print of the original cut-out 'Open Oyster Pearl' — the cut-out original is itself in private hands so the prints are the only way to acquire this image. Edition of 50, signed and numbered, on Hahnemühle German Etching 310 gsm. £175 framed / £115 unframed.

Oyster Pearl Closed — Limited Edition Print (2021)

The companion piece to the Open Oyster. Same edition size and price as her sister — bought as a pair, they make a small, considered diptych. Edition of 50, signed and numbered, on Hahnemühle German Etching 310 gsm. £175 framed / £115 unframed.

Oyster Girls — Original Collaged Typictions (2020 / 2021 / 2025)

A genuinely original piece: three earlier typictions made in 2020 and 2021, recombined as a collage with a painted background and varnish in 2025. The work carries five years of practice in one frame. 18 × 18 cm unframed. £475 framed.

Oyster Girls — Hand-Finished Limited Edition Print (2026)

A new and unusual edition: limited to 25, each impression hand-finished by the artist who paints the background herself, making each print slightly different from the next — closer to an original than a print. Smaller edition (25, not 50) to reflect the work involved. £195 unframed. Currently pending production — Keira needs to unframe and re-scan the original collage to produce the print run.

Why these together

The thing that ties Keira's six Eye Feast pieces together — beyond the typewriter — is how openly they wear their handmade-ness. Each character on the page is a specific decision: which letter, struck how hard, in which combination, to render a soft thing soft, or a hard thing hard. The result reads as drawing but is, technically, writing. And writing about food, drink and pleasure has rarely looked so much like the thing itself.

Where to see them

All six works are in Eye Feast 2026 at Regent's Park Gallery, 17 Princess Road, London NW1 8JR, from 5 June to 27 June 2026. Prices range from £175 to £3,150. Limited edition prints can be ordered framed or unframed; the original and the diptych are sold framed. Available to view in the gallery during the show, or to browse and buy via the online shop.

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