Lot 381 - Zena Blackwell - Major

Oil on linen
2025
A6 (10x15cm)
Original Artwork
Signed on Verso
Curated by Art on a Postcard

About

Zena Blackwell is an award-winning contemporary painter whose work explores themes pertaining to childhood, parenthood and family life. Working primarily in oils, Zena allows the story on the canvas to unfold organically, with her source material ranging from her personal archive of family photos to specifically sought out found images.

Education

2021-2022
TURPS Correspondence Course

2010-2011
MFA In Fine Art, Central Saint Martins

1996 - 1999
BFA in Fine Art, Wimbledon College of Art

Solo Exhibitions

2022
A Delicate Balance: Solo show at Canfas, Cardigan, Wales

2018
Seen Not Heard: Solo Exhibition at Cardiff MADE, Cardiff, Wales

Group Exhibitions

2025
A Dream Within A Dream, Liminal Gallery, Margate, England
Intersum, Oriel Canfas, Cardiff, Wales
BEEP Painting Biennial, Aberystwyth School of Art gallery, Aberystwyth, Wales

2024
The Walls Between Us, Saatchi Gallery, London, England
BEEP Painting Biennial, Elysium Gallery, Swansea, Wales (Winner of the Friends of the Glynn Vivian Award)
Rejects, Art Friend @ Stokey Pop Up, London, Englan
Y Lle Celf, National Eisteddfod, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales
Among Women, Vol 1 curated by Occupata, Art Market, Cardiff, Wales
Primal: Tribal: Beats, Studio Cennen, Llandeilo, Wales
Made in Roath Open, g39, Cardiff, Wales
Arcade Campfa Studio Show, Art Market, Cardiff, Wales
Breath: Inspire: Spirit at Studio Cennen, Llandeilo, Wales
Cardiff MADE Winter Exhibition, Cardiff, Wales

2023
Latent Dreaming: AucArt x SeeFood Room at SeeFood Room, Hong Kong
Through the Looking Glass (Aucart Group Show), Fitzrovia Gallery, London, England
New Wave, Spitalfields Studios, London, England
SOTA Marketplace: Accessible Art Fair, The Lab, London, England
Resilience, Cardiff MADE, Cardiff, Wales
Human: Nature, Studio Cennen, Llandeilo, Wales Best of the Solo Art Prize winner's exhibition, Cardiff MADE, Cardiff, Wales

Awards

2024
Friends of the Glynn Vivian Award, BEEP Painting Biennial

2022
Shortlisted for BEEP Painting Biennial, BEEP

2021
Shortlisted for Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy

2019
3rd Prize at PAINT, PS MIrabel

2017
1st Prize Summer Exhibition, Cardiff MADE

Statement About AOAP Submitted Artwork

‘Major' is based on a found photograph of a lion by the same name that used to be an attraction at Magic Mountain theme park in California in the 1970s. He was heavily sedated and children would have their pictures taken with him. Generally, my work explores parental anxiety. Lions first started appearing in my work a few years ago, becoming a symbol of danger but also of protection. I also think a lot about the natural world and Man's destruction of it and what the future will look like for our children.