For Henry, each painting is an opportunity to explore paint, its quality and potential, an opportunity to ‘indulge in the visceral seductiveness of paint’. The inspiration - whether an object, a colour, or an old master painting - is just the start of the journey. Henry endeavours to lose himself in the process and create work that sits on the edge, familiar yet strange, rooted in reality but hinting at something just beyond reach.

‘I want to make forms that feel familiar but are unnameable, forms that feel as though we might recognise them.’

Henry’s work is alive with contrasts and conversations as he explores the boundaries between abstraction and reality, the discordant and the harmonious. He works on different scales from the modest to the exaggerated. He works in different spaces - his Shed and his Studio and his titles often have ambiguous dual meanings.

Ward paints in two distinct sites, his Shed in Queens Road Peckham and his Studio in Woolwich and there is an ongoing dialogue between the way he works in these spaces. Lockdown precipitated a regular daily practice in the refuge of his Shed. This rigorous, regular practice continues to inform the larger canvases produced in his studio - which offers the time and space to contemplate and build on the rapid and instinctive Shed Paintings.

WORKS ON PAPER

WORKS ON PAPER - UNFRAMED

WORKS ON CANVAS

WORKS ON WOOD

Training | Middlesex University, PhD, 2013; Goldsmiths College, PGCE Secondary (Art), 1999; Winchester School of Art, BA Hons (Fine Art), 1993; Central St Martin’s College of Art & Design, Foundation Diploma, 1990

Solo Exhibitions | ‘Album’ Canal Boat Contemporary, 2025; ‘Dumb Ritual’ Vivienne Roberts Projects, 2025; ‘Bethany’ book launch, Frestonian Gallery 2025; ‘Engine Room’ M2 Gallery, 2024; ‘Medusa & Other Stories’ London Art Fair 2024; ‘From Woolwich’ Oasis, Frinton-On-Sea, 2023; “Baffle” Aleph Contemporary, 2021; “Abracadabra” AMP Gallery, 2018; “Henry Ward” Stark Gallery, 2004; “Henry Ward – Paintings and Drawings” North Bank Gallery, 1995.

Selected Group Exhibitions | ‘Odyssey’, Hastings Contemporary, 2026; ‘The Gloaming Plane’ Terrace Gallery, 2026; Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, 2025; The London Group Open, Copeland Gallery, 2025; Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, 2025; ‘Cahoots’ Phoenix Gallery, 2025; The Lido Open, Lido Stores, 2025; ‘Shared Origins’ Winns Gallery, 2025; ‘Wrexham Painting Prize’, 2025; 'Cubitt Invites' Cubitt Gallery, 2024; 'G.R.I.T' Kunstpunkt Berlin and Drawing Projects UK, 2024; Wells Contemporary, 2024; 'Concrete Abstract' Terrace Gallery, 2024; 'Knot-Rachael Causer & Henry Ward' Stone Space, 2024; 'Carnevale – Friendly Little Monsters' Vivienne Roberts Projects, 2023; 'Don’t Look Back' Vivienne Roberts Projects, 2023; 'Look Both Ways – Daniel Preece & Henry Ward' Kittoe Contemporary, 2023; 'Colour, Texture, Substance, No Name' Warbling Collective, 2023; ‘A Little Closer’ Aleph Contemporary, 2023; ‘Shapeshifters’ Irving Contemporary, 2023; ‘Small is Beautiful XL’ Flowers Gallery, 2022; ‘Swamp Legends’ Terrace Gallery, 2022; ‘The Aesthetics of Enchantment in Abstract Art’ Aleph Contemporary, 2022; Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, 2022–23; ’On Surface–Perspectives on Painting’ Messums, 2022; 'Beep Painting Biannual 2022' Elysium Gallery, 2022; ‘A Generous Space 2’ The New Art Gallery, 2022; ‘Works on Paper 4’ Blue Shop Cottage, 2022; ‘Roam- Rebecca Gilpin & Henry Ward' Fitzrovia Gallery, 2022; ‘The Football Art Prize’ Touchstones, 2022; ‘On Paper’ The Paper Museum, 2022; ‘In Awe of You’ Liliya Gallery, 2022 

Residencies | House of Hulda, Andoya, Norway, 2026; Gwithian Chapel, Falmouth Painting Platform, Cornwall, 2025; Stephen Swindells Studios, Burgundy, France 2024; The Albers Foundation, Connecticut, USA, 2023; Wolverhampton Art School, 2019. 

Collections | Soho House, London

Winner or the Artlogic 'Best Stand' Award at the London Art Fair 2024. Shortlisted for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize in 2018, 2019 and 2022, and longlisted for the Contemporary British Painting Prize 2021. Included in the inaugural The Football Art Prize in 2022. His work has been included in numerous exhibitions. The first substantial publication about his work Shed Paintings was published in February 2021 by Hato Press and features 101 works on paper and essay by Ben Street. 

Ward is the Director for Freelands Foundation (www.freelandsfoundation.co.uk), and launched the Freelands Painting Prize in 2020. Previously he was Head of Education at Southbank Centre and worked in a variety of roles at Welling School, a Specialist Visual Arts College, where he led on the school’s specialism. In 2002 he established the alTURNERtive Prize, an annual award celebrating outstanding student practice. In 2011 he founded the biannual arts and education periodical, (www.wellingvisualarts.org). He is a visiting lecturer at UK art schools including Bath Spa University, University of Brighton, Manchester School of Art, Plymouth College of Art and Wolverhampton School of Art, and a mentor on the Turps Art School Correspondence and off-site courses.

He has written and lectured widely on the arts and education, with a particular focus on teaching as an artistic practice. He was an advisor for Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin from 2018-21 and curated a two day event, “Assembly”, investigating approaches to public engagement in 2018 and a follow up, “Assembly II” in 2021. He is a trustee of Bolton Contemporary and has been an advisor for Iniva and the Crafts Council.

EMAIL: katherine@kittoecontemporary.com  for all enquiries