A New Vision of the North
Since the Industrial revolution the North has never been as central to Britain’s future as it is today. Tennants are delighted to be able to present, this Autumn, Lefty’s North, an exclusive collection of works created during the making of Martin ‘Lefty’ Kinnear’s forthcoming debut major gallery show. Lefty’s North is a visual record of the North of Britain and how it seems to artist Martin ‘Lefty’ Kinnear to live here now, and in our time. A native son of the North, Kinnear’s affectionate and powerful work explores the tensions between poverty and privilege, industrial sprawl and sublime natural beauty, community and isolation through the places and people which define this region. Kinnear’s eagerly awaited landmark inaugural show, Regeneration will open at The Bowes Museum in November 2020, but has already seen preparatory oils scooped up by the Paris Salon.
The exhibition will also include original oils done by Kinnear during his residence at the Norman Cornish retrospective at The Bowes Museum in February 2020, based upon unfinished Cornish's unfinished sketches. Indeed, Kinnear has been described by The Bowes Museum as 'the natural successor to Cornish' for his depictions of the North.
All works will be for sale, including pieces which are to be sold on behalf of charities supported by the artist.
About the Artist
Martin ‘Lefty’ Kinnear (born 1969), is an oil painter from the industrial valley of Burnley and Pendle in East Lancashire. His works, about the people we have become and places we inhabit in post industrial modern Britain, have won him international acclaim, including a prestigious Medaille d’ Argent at his first Paris Salon in 2018. Martin has exhibited with prestigious societies including the ROI, the RBA, at the Discerning Eye, several Affordable Art Fairs, and most recently again by invitation, in the 2019 Paris Salon with the Societie Nationale des Beaux Arts.
In 2019 he was commissioned to create a solo show by The Bowes Museum to follow up their show by Hockney and their landmark retrospective on Norman Cornish. Kinnear’s show ‘Regeneration’ will run from Winter 2020 - Spring 2021.
Paralysed on his left hand side by a stroke at the age of 34, Lefty Kinnear is actively and passionately committed to the role of art in therapy and regeneration. Describing himself as ‘possibly the best one armed painter in Wensley’ he is a patron of several stroke societies and champions personal development through art in his capacity as founder of the Norfolk Painting School. Lefty has studios in Wensley, from where he records his impressions of the North and in Norfolk where he has long been an established artist.
Venue
The Garden Rooms at Tennants, Leyburn, North Yorkshire, DL8 5SG
01969 621146 info@tennantsgardenrooms.com
The exhibition is free to enter.
Opening hours
