Jen Oldknow

Jen Oldknow is an award-winning British artist, creating abstract oil paintings, with an emphasis on the use of vibrant colour, texture, and bold gestural marks to conjure a personal response to the ups and downs of life.

ARTIST STATEMENT


“My work as a painter is rooted in my need to continually explore through the physicality of paint and colour the threads that intrinsically connect vision, and expression of emotion. Diagnosed with macular degeneration in my twenties, which should perhaps be devastating to a visual artist, only serves to make me a stronger artist, more clearly focused on my source is and methods of expression as I transfer my attention from the exterior world to the interior existence of human life.

I create from a place of personal connection and experience. My paintings are concerned with visualising the intangible; explorations of the inner landscape of human experience, feeling and emotion expressed in an intuitive language of vibrant colour, texture, and bold marks. I continually ask questions of both myself and the materials I use in response to issues that cannot necessarily be seen, yet are shared by all. The aim is not to offer an explicit answer, but to entice the viewer into a conversation, to gl...

2010 Diploma in Drawing & Painting, London Art College

Mall Galleries, London, UK
Menier Gallery, London, UK
Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, UK
Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, UK
Castle Park Arts Centre, Cheshire, UK
Moss Gallery, Norway
Stwidio Maelor, Wales, UK
Wirksworth Arts Festival, Derbyshire, UK
Harley Gallery, Nottinghamshire, UK
The Old Lock Up Gallery, Derbyshire, UK
Trygve Lie Gallery, New York, USA
Porthmeor Studios, St Ives, Cornwall, UK
The Derbyshire Open Exhibition, Buxton, Derbyshire, UK
The Women's Art Library, Goldsmiths University, London
CCD, Orlando, FL, USA
Vibe Galley, London, UK
William H. Miller Fine Art, Myrtle Beach, SC, USA
Strathnairn Arts, Canberra, AUS
The Little Gallery, Derbyshire, UK
Studio 54, Derbyshire, UK
Exhale Unlimired Gallery, LA, USA
Out Of The Blue Gallery, Edinburgh, UK
Muse Gallery, Derbyshire
Derbyshire Open Arts, UK
Belper Open Studios, Derbyshire, UK
The Ashbourne Open, Derbyshire, UK
Belper Arts Trail, Derbyshire, UK