Martin Kinnear: Contemporary Painter
Paintings about how the world we make comes in time to make us .
Bio
English contemporary painter Martin Kinnear (b. 1969, Burnley) is known for creating thematic shows about self-perception, imperfection and change informed by the incongruence of his physical disability and experience of social exclusion.
Working from poems or ‘word sketches’, Kinnear slowly creates layered and contradictory paintings which explore the role of absences and ambiguity in formulating our self-concept. By utilising expressive figurative marks to communicate whilst also withholding narrative, Kinnear intends for the visual consumption of his work to reflect the viewer's preconceptions of self.
He is best known for large-scale contemporary triptychs featuring optically layered and partially excavated oils, gloss, enamel, dry media and encaustic paints (e.g. Lethe {exh. Regeneration at The Bowes Museum County Durham}, 2022).
Statement
Painting and poetry are the same. Both are arts where the truth lies in what is implied, so each person understands them only through the mirror of the own experiences.
When I realised this, my life long interest in poetry made sense, and making it allowed me to make paintings from a truth I observed, beyond what was merely in plain sight.
My habit now is to paint from words, inspired from what I observe it’s a better way of seeing, for me at least.
By working in this manner I relinquish the meaning of my works to the viewer; truth in art just as in poetry , lies beyond the control of its maker.
My poems are the working documents for my paintings.
Notable exhibitions: Regeneration at The Bowes Museum (public gallery), County Durham.
Collections: Government Art Collection UK, Collection of St Mary’s College, University of Durham.
Participated in: Chaiya Art Awards (biennial), SNBA Salon de Beaux-Arts, Paris 2022, SNBA Salon des Beaux-Arts, Paris 2019, SNBA Salon des Beaux-Arts, Paris 2018.
Notable Shows: His most notable show to date, Regeneration (The Bowes Museum County Durham), featured a work chosen by the then Prime Minister for the UK Government Art Collection, and demonstrated how he creates work of ‘how the world we make, comes in time to make us’. Kinnear also participated in three consecutive Paris Salons of the Societie Nationale des Beaux Arts in 2018-19-22. (participation in the salon was suspended in ‘21 for foreign nationals in and the event cancelled in ‘20 for Covid reasons).
Critical Response ‘Burnley (oil on canvas) was duly selected for the Government Art Collection (GAC) and it hangs at Downing Street, there to be admired by the Prime Minister and his Cabinet. On the GAC website it is described thus: “landscape 21stC, industrial, urban, bin, street, terraced house, chimney”. If that isn’t the perfect counterpoint to a Lulu Lytle interior, then I don’t know what is. But if that blunt inventory sounds bleak, the Kinnear painting style is anything but. With deft brushstrokes and exuberant swathes of colour, he elevates grittiness to something rich and magisterial.’ (David Whetsone, Art Critic. Cultured North East, Jan 2022).
Recent Exhibitions & Awards
2024
MA Painting: RCA (24/25)
9 Oct - 16 Nov Messums London. Emerging Landscape Painting Today (selected for extended online show and symposium)
2023
October: Invited exhibitor and speaker University of Durham. Elected SCR.
April 7th - 16th Chaiya Art Awards - Southbank London
19th April - 7th May: Martin Kinnear. New Works, Solo Show Tennants Gallery, North Yorkshire
June 9th - 16th - The Gallery at Sedbury ,Richmond
2022
Martin Kinnear, Societie Nationale des Beaux Arts Salon, Paris.
Martin Kinnear, Regeneration, Solo Show, The Bowes Museum, County Durham
Martin Kinnear. Works from Regeneration, Solo Show ,Tennants Gallery, North Yorkshire
2021
Martin Kinnear, Landscapes of The North, Solo Show, Tennants Gallery, North Yorkshire
2020
Martin Kinnear, 'Backstreet Burnley', Govt. Art Collection for Downing St
Martin Kinnear, Lefty's North, Solo Show, Tennants Gallery, North Yorkshire
Artist in Residence, Norman Cornish Retrospective, The Bowes Museum.
2019
Martin Kinnear, Societie Nationale des Beaux Arts Salon, Paris.
The Holt Festival, Auden Gallery, Holt.
2018
Martin Kinnear, Beyond Here, Solo Show, Tennants Gallery, North Yorkshire
Martin Kinnear, Societie Nationale des Beaux Arts Salon, Paris.
Awarded Medaille d' Argent for Peinture.
2017
Iona Gallery, Woodstock, Oxon.
2016
Martin Kinnear, The Painted Garden, Solo Show, New British Art Gallery, Norfolk
