"JOY" Painting

Francis Kenney (b. 1976) is a British fine artist and graphic designer.
Based in London, Francis has worked for over twenty years as an award-winning communication designer, type designer, and art director. He studied Graphic fine art in the 1990s at the University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury (formerly K.I.A.D), the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and Central Saint Martins in London. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London and Tallinn University in Estonia, and he has exhibited internationally.

Love, Art, Life and Death: Francis riffs on the everyday. His work explores the meaning and interpretation of images, symbols, and language. Through objects and scenes, he constructs narratives that invite the viewer to reframe the ordinary as extraordinary, using humour and gentle aphorism to question how we each relate to the world around us.

Working across printmaking, painting, sculpture, and digital media, he creates art that speaks to human connection and the shared experience. By finding joy in the mundane, his work reminds us that— to misquote Jim Reeves—“now is all the time there may be.”

His recent works reinterpret symbolic vanitas and memento mori imagery, genres that gained popularity in the 17th century to remind viewers of their mortality in a deeply religious era. With a bright, often playful colour palette, these modern takes explore questions of existence and meaning at a time when we risk being overwhelmed by the trivial.