Zena Blackwell

'The domestic setting is beautiful, still, and a touch awkward.'
- Sacha Craddock - Art critic, writer, curator)

'Zena Blackwell is a must' - Carrie Scott, Art Historian and curator and founder of SEEN

Zena Blackwell's awarding-winning paintings and drawings investigate the chaos, humour, and beauty of childhood.

Zena is a painter based in Cardiff, Wales, UK. She obtained her Masters in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, London, and degree at Wimbledon School of Art, London. Returning to painting in 2016 following a break from the medium (during which time she explored sculpture, collage, performance and installation), she won first prize at the Cardiff MADE Summer Exhibition in 2017, presenting her first solo show consisting of over 30 paintings and drawings there the year after. The exhibition, ‘Seen Not Heard’, for which she was awarded a £5k production grant from the Arts Council of Wales, was included in a weekly list of the top 5 UK exhibitions by a-n (The Artists Information Company) and Wales Arts Review included it in a top 10 list of the best Welsh Visual Arts for 2018. In 2019 she won 3rd prize at ‘PAINT’, an open painting prize at PS Mirabel in Manchester. Zena was selected for the National Eisteddfod in 2018, '19,...

2021-22 - Turps Correspondence Course

2011 - Masters in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, London

1999 - BA (hons) Fine Art from Wimbledon School of Art

UPCOMING & CURRENT:

17.10 - 25.11.24 - The Walls Between Us curated by SOTA at Saatchi Gallery, London

19.10 - 17.11.24 - Among Women, Vol 1 curated by Occupata at Art Market, Cardiff

8.11 - 21.12.24 - Breath: Inspire: Spirit at Studio Cennen, Llandeilo

9.11-21.12.24 - Beep Painting Biennial (I am 1 of 40 shortlisted artists) 'I Won't Stay in a World Without Love' at Elysium Gallery, Swansea, Wales, UK

1.2.25 - 29.3.25 - 'A Dream Within A Dream' at Liminal Gallery, Margate
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Past shows:

SOLO SHOWS:
2022 A Delicate Balance : Solo show at Canfas, Cardigan
2018 Seen Not Heard: Solo Exhibition at Cardiff MADE, Cardiff

GROUP SHOWS:
2024
Primal : Tribal : Beats at Studio Cennen, Llandeilo
Rejects (celebration of work overlooked by the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition), Art Friend, Stokey Pop Up, London
Made in Roath Open at g39, Cardiff
Y Lle Celf, National Eisteddfod, Rhondda Cynon Taf
Arcade Campfa Studio Show, Art Market, Cardiff

2023
Latent Dreaming: AucArt x SeeFood Room at SeeFood Room, Hong Kong

Through the Looking Glass - Aucart Group Show, Fitzrovia Gallery, London

New Wave - Spitalfields Studios, London

SOTA Marketplace : Accessible Art Fair, The Lab, London

Resilience - Annual Spring Show - Cardiff MADE

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