Kevin Hendley – Contemporary Fine Artist

Kevin Hendley was born 1961 in Derbyshire, is the son of a coal miner and came to painting in the early 1990s after ten years as a Master Butcher.

He achieved a BA degree in Fine Art at St Martin’s College of Art In London. In 1993 after being spotted at his end of year show he was given the post of Artist in Residence at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

For several years Kevin was able to paint the day-to-day activities in the opera house: performances, shows, even following Pavarotti from rehearsal to the final operatic production. These classics were put on the front covers of the Royal Opera House brochures and he was given an exhibition of the work he had produced over the years.  In 1995, after an exhibition in Notting Hill, Kevin’s work was spotted by two Dutch gallery owners ‘Smelik and Stokking Galleries’ who persuaded him to exhibit in The Netherlands.  For many decades Hendley paintings have been sold and admired in The Hague, Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Recently Kevin won a place at Brewers International, Towner Gallery, Eastbourne with his installation ‘Five Ecstasies of Saint Sebastian’.  Currently Kevin has paintings for sale in Cameron Contemporary Art Gallery who exhibit in East Sussex/Art Fairs around the UK and New York.  Also large paintings are for sale in RED EIGHT Gallery in Bank, City of London, UK.

Fans of Kevin Hendley’s work (including the Coen brothers who acquired a painting at a London Art Fair) are passionate about his mastery of oils, a contemporary fresh approach to paintings with historic sense of form, colour and structure as well as his portrait characters and tongue-in-cheek Northern humour!

PAST EXHIBITIONS

• Red Eight Gallery, Bank, City of London – ‘Mr Smiley’ collection 2023-2024
• Towner Gallery, Eastbourne ‘Five Ecstasies of Saint Sebastian’ at Brewers International 2022-2023
• Saatchi Gallery, London “Cash is King” 2019 exhibition
• Art Fair New York 2019
• BAD BOYS solo exhibition Autumn 2018 at Cameron Contemporary Art
• Winter 2017 at Cameron Contemporary Art
• The Colour of Summer 2017 at Cameron Contemporary Art
• Festival at Cameron Contemporary Art 2017
• Affordable Art Fair Hampstead, 2017 with Cameron Contemporary Art
• Affordable Art Fair Battersea, 2017 with Cameron Contemporary Art
• Winter Show 2015 Cameron Contemporary Art
• Figure, A Cast of Characters 2016 at Cameron Contemporary Art, Hove
• Affordable Art Fair Bristol, 2016 with Cameron Contemporary Art
• The Colour of Summer, 2016 at Cameron Contemporary Art
• Festival 2016 at Cameron Contemporary Art
• Affordable Art Fair Hampstead, 2016 with Cameron Contemporary Art
• Affordable Art Fair Battersea, 2016 with Cameron Contemporary Art
• Winter Show 2015 at Cameron Contemporary Art
• Smelik & Stokking, The Netherlands – 25 years of mixed and solo exhibitions
• Sue Williams Gallery, Portobello Road
• Royal Opera House

COLLECTIONS

• Numerous collections in the UK and The Netherlands
• Art UK – ( online home for every public art collection in the UK) two early paintings
• Coen Brothers collection

COMMISSIONS

• 1996-1999 Hoofdstad Operette, Amsterdam
• 1994 Christmas Card, The Dorchester Hotel, London
• 1993 The Royal Opera House, London Underground posters – advertising upcoming operas

PUBLICATIONS

• Royal Opera House Brochures 1993-1995
• The Public Catalogue Foundation – Present
• Artension (French art magazine) Issue 33 Jan-Feb 2007- Kevin Hendley: Une evidence toute beckettienne

 

*Painting featured above, Valencia by Kevin Hendley