John McKenna (sculptor)

John McKenna
McKenna with Queen Elizabeth II and his Jersey Cattle sculpture
Born	1964 Manchester, England
Residence	Turnberry, South AyrshireScotland
Nationality	British
Education	Royal Grammar School Worcester
Alma mater	Middlesex Polytechnic Art College
Occupation	Sculptor

John McKenna (born 1964) is a British Scottish sculptor born in Manchester. He is based in Turnberry, South Ayrshire, Scotland.

McKenna moved to Worcestershire where he attended the Royal Grammar School. He studied at Middlesex Polytechnic Art College in North London. In 1987 he gained a bursary to study at the Sir Henry Doulton School of Sculpture. From 1990 to 1993 he lectured at Stafford College of further education in figurative classical sculpture and at Worcester College of Technology where he taught three dimensional design. He was elected a member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors in 1993 and from this point on resigned his lecturing duties to become a full-time profession public art sculptor. In 1996 McKenna sited his sculpture studio at Crown East lane, Worcester. Here he made many of his public art commissions including the 'family of instruments', commissioned by the Crown Estate for Bell Square, Worcester City and the Jersey Cattle group bronze sculpture celebrating the cattle breed 'The Year of the Jersey 2001'. This particular commission saw McKenna's work on the breed of cattle being introduced to Her Majesty Queen Eizabeth II at the opening of the Royal Jersey Agricultural & Horticultural building, Trinity, Jersey.

By the year 2002 McKenna was commissioned to produce the main artwork on the Cunard Line transatlantic liner, Queen Mary 2 and his existing studio facilities in Worcestershire were rapidly becoming to small for the greater scale of artworks that he was starting to be commissioned for. Driven by the shortage of economically viable studio space and with the Queen Mary 2 commission contract signed he relocated the studio to a small holding farm on the South West coast of Scotland. From the new larger studios in Scotland, McKenna was able to create much larger artworks in fabricated metals. The Queen Mary 2 CUNARD commission being 20 ft by 23 ft bas-relief in sheet bronze and stainless steel, a portrait of the ship itself. McKenna later went on to create the staircase feature in the sister ship Queen Victoria, again a relief portrait of the ship itself. Both relief sculptures were carrying on the panel theme from the original Queen Mary ship built in Belfast and launched in 1934. Back on land McKenna was commissioned to create a bronze statue of swineherd Eof, in Evesham, Worcestershire. McKenna's design for Eof was selected in the year 1999 by public competition but it took the town several years to raise the funds to pay for the statue.