Ken Kiff (1935-2001)

1935 Born Dagenham
1955–60 National Diploma in Design, Hornsey School of Art
1960–61 Teacher Training, Hornsey School of Art
1964-80s Teacher, Chelsea School of Art
1979-90s Teacher, Royal College of Art
1981 Attends the Artists’ Camp at Kasauli, India
1991 Elected Royal Academician
1991–93 Associate Artist, The National Gallery, London
2001 Died London
 

Solo Exhibitions

2022 Ken Kiff: Man, Bird and Tree, Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate
2019 Ken Kiff: Man Painting, Turps Gallery and ASC Gallery, London
Ken Kiff: The Sequence, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich
2018 Ken Kiff (1935-2001) Paintings, Prints, Drawings, Young Gallery, Salisbury
2017 Ken Kiff - Unfolding, Deutsche Bank Display, Frieze Masters, London
2015 The Hill of Dreams, Marlborough Fine Art, London
2008 Ken Kiff: Paintings and Works on Paper, Marlborough Fine Art, London
2004 Ken Kiff: Encaustic Paintings 1996-1999, Marlborough Fine Art, London
2001 Ken Kiff Retrospective of Paintings, Works on Paper and Prints, Marlborough Fine Art & Graphics, London
Ken Kiff: Print Retrospective, White Gallery, Brighton
1999 Ken Kiff - Prints, Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin
Ken Kiff, City Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol
World Artists at the Millennium, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York
Ken Kiff: Recent Works, Marlborough Fine Art & Graphics, London
1997 Ken Kiff: Recent Work, Mead Gallery, Warwickshire touring to New Ashgate Gallery, & Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston
1996 Ken Kiff, Marlborough Fine Art & Graphics, London
Ken Kiff, Beatrice Royal Contemporary Art & Craft, Eastleigh, Hampshire
1994 Ken Kiff Prints and Drawings, Ruskin Gallery, Sheffield
1993-94 Ken Kiff at the National Gallery, National Gallery, London
1993 Ken Kiff – Prints and Monotypes, The University Gallery, University of Northumbria, Newcastle
Kiff - Prints and Monotypes, Woodlands Gallery, Blackheath, London
1992 Ken Kiff, London Print Workshop
1991 Ken Kiff: Recent Work, Marlborough Fine Art, London
Prints by Ken Kiff, Marlborough Graphics Ltd, London; Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; Glasgow Print Studio
1990 Ken Kiff: Monotypes, Pamela Auchincloss Gallery, New York
1988 Ken Kiff, Fischer Fine Art, London
1986 Ken Kiff: Paintings 1965-85, Serpentine Gallery, London touring to Ferens Art Gallery, Hull; Arnolfi Gallery, Bristol
Ken Kiff, Edward Thorp Gallery, New York
1985 Ken Kiff, Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London
1983 Ken Kiff, Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London
1982 Ken Kiff, Edward Thorp Gallery, New York
1981 Ken Kiff, Talbot Rice Art Centre, Edinburgh touring to MacRoberts Art Centre, Stirling; Dundee Museum and Art Gallery, Dundee
Ken Kiff, Edward Thorp Gallery, New York
1980 Ken Kiff, Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London
1979 Ken Kiff, Gardner Centre Gallery, University of Sussex, Brighton
1975 Ken Kiff, Serpentine Gallery, London
 

Selected Group Exibitions

2024 Blue: the pursuit of the heavenly colour, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
2023 People of the Otherworld: Ken Kiff in Dialogue, curated by Kathy Battista, Albertz Benda, New York
The Moth and the Thunderclap, curated by Simon Grant, Modern Art, London
2021 Fully Awake, Holden Gallery, Manchester School of Art
2020 Me Myself and I, Collyer Bristow Gallery, London
Chroma, Marlborough Graphics, London
2018 Lovers and Other Spectres, The Kingsgate Workshops, London
Year 1, Frestonian Gallery, London
Marlborough Fine Art, Frieze Masters, London
Studio Prints - A Survey, Marlborough Graphics, London
2017 Orpheus Ascending, Eagle Gallery/EMH Arts, London
Towards Night, Towner Arts Gallery, Eastbourne
The Luminous Language, Frestonian Gallery, London
2015 A Summer Show, Marlborough Fine Art, London
2010 At the Edge: British Art 1950 to 2000, Aberystwyth Arts Centre
2006 Summer Exhibition, Marlborough Fine Art, London
2002 London International Small Print Biennale, Morley Gallery, London
2001 Tell Me a Picture, curated by Quentin Blake, National Gallery, London
Ken Kiff and Celia Paul, Charleston Gallery, Sussex
Great Impressions: Contemporary and Modern Master Prints, Royal Museum and Art Gallery, Canterbury
London School Prints, Eigse Carlow Arts Festival, Ireland
Tribute to Ken Kiff, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
2000 Harlech Printmaking Open, Theatr Ardudwy, Harlech, Wales
1999 World Artists at the Millennium: The International Year of Older Persons, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York
1998 Ballinglen - Seven Artists’ Residencies, The Economist Plaza, London
1997 British Figurative Art, Part One: Painting - The Human Figure, Flowers East, London
A Century of European Prints, Marlborough Graphics, London
Landscape and Recollection: The Ballinglen Experience, The Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin
1996 Two Seconds Nine Months, Manhattan Loft Corporation, Bankside Lofts, London
Down to Earth, 4 Art Galeria, Barcelona, Spain; Lamont Gallery, London
1995-96 John Moores Exhibition 19, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1995 Art in Worship, Worcester Cathedral An American Passion - the Susan Kasen Summer and Robert D. Summer Collection, Royal College of Art, London
1994 Accrochage, Marlborough Fine Art, London
Here and Now, Serpentine Gallery, London
Pastels Today, Mall Galleries, London
Paper under Pressure, Ackland Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
1993 Sammlung Sandven - Zur Kunst der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts, Liechtensteinische Staatliche Kunstsammlung, Vaduz
1992 Three Generations Pasmore, Kiff, Briggs, Vera Grodzinski Gallery, London
1991 Art in Worship, Tewkesbury Abbey and Worcester Cathedral, Worcester
1990 Glasgow’s Great British Art Exhibition, McLellan Galleries, Glasgow
Nine Contemporary Paints: A Personal Choice, selected by Andrew Lambirth, City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
Biting Back: Images of Symbolic Animals by Ken Kiff and Alexis Hunter, Manchester City Art Galleries
1989-96 Artists’ Choice, British Council, (48 prints (various artists)); Brazil (1989); Ecuador (1990); Columbia (1990); Central Bank Gallery, St Michael, Barbados (1992); Barbados Museum And Historical Society, St Michael, Barbados (1992); National Gallery Of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica (1993); British Council Office - Zagreb, Croatia (1996); Galerija Likovbih Umjetnosti, Osijek, Croatia (1996); National Gallery, Tirana, Albania (1996)
1989 The Tree of Life, South Bank Centre Travelling Exhibition, Cornerhouse Gallery, Manchester
The Cutting Edge, Manchester City Art Galleries
The School of London: Works on Paper, Odette Gilbert Gallery, London
Eros in AlbionL Six English Painters, selected by Keith Patrick, Casa di Masaccio, San Giovanni Valdarno, Arezzo
Picturing People: British Figurative Art Since 1945, British Council Travelling Exhibition, National Art Gallery; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Hong Kong Museum of Art; National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare
1988 Narrative Painting, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
Personal Choice by Jeffrey Camp, Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London
1987 Current Affairs: British Paintings and Sculpture in the 1980s, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, and British Council tour to the Mücsarnok, Budapest; Národni Galerie, Prague; The Zacheta, Warsaw
The Self-Portrait, Artsite Gallery, Bath
1985 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Neue Bilder, Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, Salzburg
Group Exhibition, Betsy Rosenfeld Gallery, Chicago
Human Interest, The Cornerhouse Gallery, Manchester
Tva Engelska Målare, Galleri Rotor, Götesborgs Universitet, Sweden (with Simon Willis)
Nocturnal Images, Paine Art Center and Arboretum, Wisconsin
1984 A Private View, Ecole Régionale des Trois Arts, Nantes
The British Art Show, Ikon Gallery and City Gallery Museum, Birmingham; Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh; Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield; Southampton Art Gallery Tenth Anniversary Exhibition: Content - A Contemporary Focus 1974-1984, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. The Proper Study: Contemporary Figurative Art from Britain, Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi
Metaphor and/or Symbol, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
British Art, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; Royal Exhibition Hall, Melbourne; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Queensland Art Gallery; National Art Gallery, Wellington
Poetry and the Visual Arts, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
In their Circumstances, Usher Gallery, Lincoln, curated by Timothy Hyman
1983 Alive to it All, Serpentine Gallery, London; Rochdale Art Gallery; Ferens Art Gallery, Hull
Marseilles Art Present, Musée Cantini, Marseilles
The Painterly Figure, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York
Eros-Mythos-Ironie, Trigon INternational Biennale, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum, Joanneum, Graz
New Art, Tate Gallery, London
1982 Thirteen British Artists, with Howard Hodgkin, Frank Auerbach, David Wiseman, Leon Kossoff, John Walker. Neue Galerie - Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen; Kunstverein Mannheim; Kunstverein Braunschweig
Issues: New Allegory 1, curated by Elisabeth Sussman, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; New York
4th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney
John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 13, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
London Group, Camden Arts Centre
1981 New Works on Paper I, curated by John Elderfield, Museum of Modern Art, New York (touring USA)
The Subjective Eye, selected by Moira Kelly and Edward Lucie-Smith, Midland Group Gallery, Nottingham
13 British Artists: An Exhibition on Painting, Neue Galerie - Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen; Kunstverein Mannheim; Kunstverein Braunschweig; Bündner Kunstverein, Switzerland Group Exhibition, Edward Thorp Gallery, New York
1980 Works on Paper, Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London
John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 12, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1979 Narrative Painting, selected by Timothy Hyman, Arnolfini, Bristol
The First Exhibition, Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London
1975-76 Body and Soul, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1975 Painters of Reality, Mystery and Illusion, Rochdale Art Gallery
1974 John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 9, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
British Watercolours, Rochdale Art Gallery
1973 Magic and Strong Medicine, selected by Norbert Lynton, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Contemporary British Art, Rochdale Art Gallery
1970 Critic’s Choice, selected by Norbert Lynton, Arthur Tooth and Sons, London
 


PUBLIC COLLECTIONS


Arts Council England

The Ballinglen Arts Foundation Permanent Collection

The British Council

The British Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Foundation for Essex Arts: BAT Collection

Götesborgs Konstmuseum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Milwaukee Art Museum

The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Royal Academy of Arts

Rugby Art Gallery and Museum

Tate Britain

Museum Würth