Ken Elias

Last updated

Ken Elias
Born1944
NationalityWelsh
Education Newport College of Art & Design (now the University of South Wales) (BA Fine Art )
University College Cardiff (PGCE)
UWIC (MA Fine Art)
Known forPainting
Movement Pop Art

Ken Elias is a Welsh artist. Born in 1944, into a working-class family in Glynneath, his childhood was formed during the 1950s. He attended art school in the 1960s, during the height of the Pop Art movement in the UK. [1]

Contents

Artwork

Ken Elias's work is held in a number of public collections, including the National Museum of Wales, the National Library of Wales, the Arts Council of Wales, Brecknock Museum & Art Gallery and the Contemporary Arts Society of Wales. [2] [3] [4]

Using acrylic paint, photomontage and mixed media, Elias creates powerful, striking images, with strong shapes and contrasting colours. Influenced by the memories of family and cinema during his 1950s childhood [5] and his love of poetry and art, his work uses memory and imagination, responding to and drawing inspiration from global issues and currents, while also being strongly rooted in the visual language of the south Wales valleys. [1] [5] [6]

In 2009 the National Library of Wales launched a touring retrospective exhibition of his work titled; Ken Elias: A Retrospective – A celebration of 40 years of painting [1] [7] alongside a publication by Seren Books, edited by Ceri Thomas; Ken Elias: Thin Partitions'. [8] [9]

In April 2013, Elias' work was included in a major exhibition at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, titled Pop and Abstract , alongside work by David Hockney, Peter Blake, Allen Jones, Bridget Riley and others. [10] [11] [12]

He is a member of both The Welsh Group [13] [14] and the 56 Group Wales. [15]

Public collections

International exhibitions

Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Museum Cardiff</span> Museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales

National Museum Cardiff, formerly known as the National Museum of Wales, is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales. Entry is kept free by a grant from the Welsh Government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pauline Boty</span> British pop art painter (1938–1966)

Pauline Boty was a British painter and co-founder of the 1960s' British Pop art movement of which she was the only acknowledged female member. Boty's paintings and collages often demonstrate a joy in self-assured femininity and female sexuality, as well as criticism of the "man's world" in which she lived. Her rebellious art, combined with her free-spirited lifestyle, has made Boty a herald of 1970s' feminism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ceri Richards</span> Welsh painter (1903–1971)

Ceri Giraldus Richards was a Welsh painter, print-maker and maker of reliefs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Janes</span> Painter (1911–1999)

Alfred George Janes was a Welsh artist, who worked in Swansea and Croydon. He experimented with many forms, but is best known for his meticulous still lifes and portraits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MOMA, Wales</span> Art museum in Powys, Wales

MOMA Machynlleth or Museum of Modern Art, Machynlleth is an arts centre and gallery adjacent to Y Tabernacl in Machynlleth, Powys, Wales.

Josef Herman, was a highly regarded Polish-British painter who influenced contemporary art, particularly in the United Kingdom. He was part of a generation of central and eastern European Jewish refugee artists who emigrated to escape Nazi persecution. He saw himself as part of a tradition of European figurative artists who painted working people, a tradition that included Courbet, Millet and Van Gogh, Kathe Kollwitz and the Flemish Expressionist Constant Permeke. For eleven years he lived in Ystradgynlais, a mining community in South Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newport Museum</span> Museum in Newport, Wales

Newport Museum and Art Gallery is a museum, library and art gallery in the city of Newport, South Wales. It is located in Newport city centre on John Frost Square and is adjoined to the Kingsway Shopping Centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welsh art</span> Art produced in Wales or by Welsh people

Welsh art is the traditions in the visual arts associated with Wales and its people. Most art found in, or connected with, Wales is essentially a regional variant of the forms and styles of the rest of the British Isles, a very different situation from that of Welsh literature. The term Art in Wales is often used in the absence of a clear sense of what "Welsh art" is, and to include the very large body of work, especially in landscape art, produced by non-Welsh artists in Wales since the later 18th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iwan Bala</span> Welsh artist

Iwan Bala is a Welsh artist, born May 1956 in Sarnau, Merionethshire, near Bala.

The Welsh Group is an artists' collective, with the purpose of exhibiting and "giving a voice" to the visual arts in Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Giardelli</span> English painter (1911–2009)

Vincent Charles Arthur Giardelli, MBE, was a Welsh artist of Italian paternal descent.

Robert Alwyn Hughes is a Welsh artist.

Glenys Irene Cour is a Welsh artist.

Frances Richards was a British painter, embroiderer, and illustrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art in Cardiff</span> Overview of visual arts of Cardiff, UK

Art in Cardiff refers to the culture of visual arts in Cardiff, capital city of Wales. The visual arts in Cardiff have a much more recent history than many British cities, due to it being a very small town until rapid growth took place in the mid nineteenth century. Cardiff School of Art originated in 1865 and the first major public art exhibition took place in 1870. The town became a city in 1905, after which time it gained further importance, for example with the creation of a new National Museum. Into the 21st century it has a thriving art scene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christine Kinsey</span> Welsh artist (born 1942)

Christine Kinsey is a Welsh artist, author and curator, now based in Pembrokeshire. She was the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Chapter Workshops and Centre for the Arts, Cardiff, now called Chapter Arts Centre.

Kevin Sinnott is a Welsh painter known for contemporary depictions of Welsh life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stan Jones (painter)</span> Welsh artist (1930–2012)

Stanley Owen Jones (1930–2012) was a Welsh watercolour artist who was inspired by the natural world and in particular by references to nature in Dylan Thomas' poetry; he often painted images of plant life, and the sun.

Claudia Jane Herington Williams was a British artist known for her paintings, often large colourful portraits. Although born in England, Williams spent the majority of her career painting in Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Malthouse</span>

Eric Malthouse (1914–1997) was a British artist and print maker who spent most of his career in South Wales.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Ken Elias: A Retrospective - A celebration of 40 years of painting". Archived from the original on 6 July 2013. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  2. "Welcome to CASW | art wales, contemporary art, welsh art, casw, art society". Archived from the original on 11 July 2013. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 "Ken Elias". Artinwales.250x.com. Archived from the original on 22 May 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  4. 6 artworks by or after Ken Elias , Art UK . Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  5. 1 2 "Ken Elias". Wai.org.uk. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
  6. "BBC – Blogs – Wales – Thin Partitions – artist Ken Elias". Bbc.co.uk. 22 October 2009. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  7. "Ken Elias: A Retrospective". Archived from the original on 11 July 2013. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  8. 1 2 "Ken Elias: Thin Partitions – Seren Books". Serenbooks.com. Archived from the original on 23 October 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  9. 1 2 "Ken Elias Thin Partitions". Gwales.com. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  10. "Pop and Abstract". visual culture wales. 25 April 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  11. "Pop art of Wales back on display". walesonline. 9 March 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  12. "Pop and Abstract – What's On – National Museum Wales". Museumwales.ac.uk. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  13. "Home | Hafan".
  14. "The Welsh Group: Ken Elias". Archived from the original on 7 November 2013. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  15. "Ken Elias". Welshgroup.co.uk. Archived from the original on 31 July 2012. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  16. "Art UK – Ken Elias". Art UK . Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  17. "The Welsh Group | American exchange".
  18. "The Welsh Group | German exchange".