Medusa & Other Stories | Henry Ward 

We are delighted to present Henry Ward's solo show on Stand E20 at the London Art Fair

16 - 21 January.

This exhibition centres on Henry’s 2021 painting ‘Medusa’ - epic re-imagining of Gericault’s ‘The Raft of the Medusa’. Embracing the theme Encounters Henry has created a series of new works on wood all responding to other painters’ work. The source paintings have inspired his own creative journeys and taken his work in unexpected directions. 

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; his titles have ambiguous dual meanings.

Alongside his new work we have brought together signature works - from shed paintings to studio canvases - reflecting the breadth of Henry’s practice. The show provides a snapshot of a life dedicated to visual art as artist, educator and curator. 

EMAIL: katherine@kittoecontemporary.com  for all enquiries