Henry Ward British, b. 1971
Henry Ward is an artist, writer, and educator whose practice is engaged with the act of making, materiality, and the interplay between abstraction and representation. Living and working in London, Ward’s work spans painting, drawing, and small-scale sculpture, embodying a dynamic approach that challenges traditional painterly structures. His practice unfolds across three distinct spaces—his kitchen table, garden shed, and studio—each playing a crucial role in an ongoing act of creation, intuition, and refinement.
At the core of Ward’s work is an exploration of structure within painting. His compositions are constructed through a process of layering and juxtaposition, where geometric forms, graphic mark-making, and fluid, gestural strokes coexist in a precarious balance. Colour plays a defining role in his paintings, with bold hues and unexpected harmonies that heighten the tension between order and disorder. His approach to surface and structure evokes the sculptural quality of Philip Guston’s late works, where shape and pigment interact in a state of constant negotiation.
Ward’s small sculptural works, known as the Kitchen Table Sculptures, offer another dimension to his practice. Created from found materials gathered during city walks, these objects exist at the intersection of the real and the abstract, bridging the gap between the two-dimensional and three-dimensional. These forms, characterised by their assemblage-like quality, reflect his ongoing interest in balance, wedging, and the interplay of contrasting materials. They serve as an extension of his paintings, reinforcing the physical and conceptual connections between his works across different mediums.
His Shed Paintings—a series of works on paper created in his garden shed—are marked by their immediacy and intuitive execution. Rapidly produced, often overpainted, these works capture the raw, unfiltered energy of Ward’s process, where representation is secondary to the act of painting itself. The shed serves as a space of material exploration, a place where the life of paint is paramount, and forms emerge through an instinctive, gestural engagement with the medium. These works often act as components for larger compositions in the studio, where Ward reconfigures and integrates them into expansive multi-piece paintings, embodying a puzzle-like approach to form and colour.
The studio, in contrast, provides a space for contemplation and sustained engagement with the painted surface. While Ward’s practice remains rooted in spontaneity, his studio works develop over extended periods, allowing for a deeper interrogation of pictorial structure. The layering of architectural and figural elements over abstract planes destabilises conventional composition, introducing a sense of movement and evolution within the work.
Ward’s contribution to contemporary painting has been widely recognised, with his work included in major exhibitions such as The Football Art Prize (2022), The Aesthetics of Enchantment in Abstract Art (2022), and Lost in Abstraction (2021). He has been shortlisted multiple times for the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize and was longlisted for the Contemporary British Painting Prize in 2021. His first major publication, Shed Paintings – Henry Ward (Hato Press, 2021), presented a collection of 101 works on paper with an essay by Ben Street. In 2025, a monograph titled Bethany, published by Anomie, will explore Ward’s residency at The Albers Foundation and his evolving practice, with contributions from Fritz Horstman, Jonathan Watkins, and others.
In addition to his artistic practice, Ward has played a pivotal role in arts education and curation. As the Director of the Freelands Foundation, he has championed initiatives that support contemporary painters, including launching the Freelands Painting Prize in 2020. His curatorial and educational projects, such as Assembly (2018, 2021) at Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, have examined new approaches to public engagement with art.
Henry Ward’s work is, at its essence, an ongoing investigation into the possibilities of paint and form. His layered, architectonic compositions and sculptural sensibilities reveal a process-driven exploration of materiality and balance. As Rosa JH Berland notes, Ward’s approach is rooted in “a wrapping of materials, juxtaposed with a balancing and ‘wedging’ of form, shape, texture, and colour.” It is through this alchemical process that Ward’s art achieves its singular energy, continuously unfolding in the act of making itself.
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BIOGRAPHY
Born 1971. Lives & works in London
Solo Exhibitions
“Engine Room” m2 Gallery, London 2024
“Medusa & Other Stories” London Art Fair, Kittoe Contemporary, London 2024
“From Woolwich” Oasis, Frinton on Sea 2023
“Baffle” Aleph Contemporary, London 2021
“Abracadabra” AMP Gallery, London, 2018
“Henry Ward” Stark Gallery, London, 2004
“Henry Ward – Paintings and Drawings” North Bank Gallery, London, 1995
Selected Group Exhibitions
Cubitt Invites, Cubitt Studios & Gallery, London 2024
“G.R.I.T” Kunstpunkt, Berlin and Drawing Projects UK, Dundee 2024
Wells Contemporary 2024, Wells 2024
“Concrete Abstract” Terrace Gallery, London, 2024
“Knot – Rachael Causer & Henry Ward” Stone Space, London 2024
“Carnevale – Friendly Little Monsters” Vivienne Roberts Projects, London 2023
“Don’t Look Back” Vivienne Roberts Projects, London 2023
“Look Both Ways – Dan Preece & Henry Ward” Kittoe Contemporary, Curious Kudu, London 2023
“Colour, Texture, Substance, No Name” Warbling Collective, Kingsgate Space, London 2023
“A Little Closer” Aleph Contemporary, London, 2023
“Shapeshifters” Irving Contemporary, Oxford, 2023
“Small is Beautiful XL” Flowers Gallery, London, 2022
“Swamp Legends” Terrace Gallery, London, 2022
“The Aesthetics of Enchantment in Abstract Art” Aleph Contemporary, London, 2022
Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, touring UK, 2022 – 2023
“on Surface – Perspectives on Painting” Messums London, 2022
Beep Painting Biannual 2022, Elysium Gallery, Swansea 2022
“A Generous Space 2” The New Art Gallery, Walsall 2022
“Roam” Rebecca Gilpin & Henry Ward, Fitzrovia Gallery, London 2022
“The Football Art Prize” Touchstones, Rochdale then touring 2022
“A Generous Space” Hastings Contemporary, Hastings, 2021 – 2022
“Lost in Abstraction 1, 2, 3” Henry Ward & Mark Wright, curated by Alistair Hicks, Aleph Contemporary, London 2021
“Oxlade Soup” co-curated with Karl Bielik and Angela Johnson , Terrace Gallery, London, 2021
“Your Foot in my Face” curated by Dan Howard-Birt, Kingsgate Space, London, 2021
“This Year’s Model Part III” Studio 1.1, London, 2021
“Swimming Backwards” Sid Motion Gallery, London, 2021
“Studio Confetti” curated by Karl Bielik, Terrace Gallery, London, 2021
Drawing Biennial 2021, The Drawing Room, London, 2021
“Without Borders” Elysium Gallery, Swansea then touring to Norway, , USA, Canada, Venice and Japan, 2021 -22
Wells Contemporary 2020, Wells 2020
“Way Out” La Grange Gallery, Cernay-Lès-Reims France 2020
Beep Painting Biannual 2020, Elysium Gallery, Swansea 2020
“Binary” Shift, Cardiff and Terrace Gallery, London, 2020-2022
“This Year’s Model Part II” Studio 1.1 Gallery, London, 2020
“6 Days in December”, curated by Martin Gayford, Thameside Gallery, London 2019
Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, touring UK, 2019 – 2020
“A Tapered Teardrop” curated by Karl Bielik, Terrace Gallery, London 2019
“Fully Awake 4.6” Edinburgh, 2019
“Paint” PS Mirabel, Manchester, 2019
“This Year’s Model Part II” Studio 1.1 Gallery, London, 2019
Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, touring UK, 2018 – 2019
“This Year’s Model Part I” Studio 1.1 Gallery, London, 2018
Residencies
Stephen Swindells Studios, Burgundy, France 2024
The Albers Foundation, Connecticut USA 2023
Wolverhampton Art School 2019
Collections
Soho House, London
Department for Education, London
Reviews, Articles & Publications
“Baffle” review AN Magazine https://www.a-n.co.uk/reviews/henry-ward-baffle/
“From Gutter to Gallery” Art Daily 2021 https://artdaily.cc/news/137087/From-gutter-to-gallery–Aleph-Contemporary-exhibits-works-by-Henry-Ward-#.YOwugBNKiYA
Shed Paintings – Henry Ward (including essay by Ben Street) Hato Press
Henry H Ward – Glorious Like Guston https://lonelyocean.art/
“Coronavirus – How artists are depicting the lockdown” Ella Wills, BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52296886
“Self help is key for an art world in lockdown” Laura Cumming, The Observer https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/mar/29/self-help-is-key-for-art-world-in-lockdown
“A Tapered Teardrop” Terrace Gallery by Geoff Hands https://fineartruminations.com/
“About Abstraction – an interview with Henry Ward” Chris Francis https://www.artpedagogy.com/about-abstraction-henry-ward.html
Education
Middlesex University, PhD, 2013
Goldsmiths College, PGCE Secondary (Art), 1999
Winchester School of Art, BA Hons (Fine Art), 1993
Central St Martin’s College of Art & Design, Foundation Diploma, 1990