Dr Bren Unwin PPRE, Hon.RWS, PhD, MA (Research), BA (Hons.), NSA
Bren Unwin’s work considers the reciprocal relationship between an active perceiver and their dynamic environment. Taking an exploratory and often intuitive approach, meaning in Unwin's artwork emerges through the infinite potential of actions, ideas, materials, research and engagement. The experience, the place, as well as the work itself, becomes a complex and labyrinthine palimpsest.
Past President of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers and a Fellow of the Newlyn Society of Artists, Unwin’s work is held in many international collections including the British Museum, London; the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and the Royal Collection of his Majesty the King. She was awarded a PhD in 2008 by the University of Hertfordshire for her work on landscape experience and Fine Art Practice.
Phenomenology and Landscape Experience: a critical appraisal for contemporary art practice
Bren Unwin 2008
Personal statement
In his workshop, my late father instilled in me a love of process, materials and making things. Childhood holidays spent at Cape Cornwall led to me eventually living and working in St Just-in-Penwith, and being part of the Cape Cornwall NCI Coastwatch team. Solitary hours spent keeping an eye on shipping and wildlife, along with the surrounding tin-mine littered landscape, nourished my work. The mark-making and ways of working that I developed during this period of my life continue to influence my work today. Being part of such a rich and diverse artistic community was very special and I remain a Fellow of the Newlyn Society of Artists.
I studied at St Albans School of Art which then became part of the University of Hertfordshire. I researched both theoretically and in art practice, how we experience our environment, and how that experience might be revealed in art practice. This period of study led me into many adventures across the globe. However, currently I am studio-based in Hertfordshire and working from an independent research perspective. Each new work informs the next piece, as well as holding traces of a multitude of past experiences and influences. Observations and feelings feed into the work over a prolonged period; layers are built, removed, built again, reorganised. By these repeated actions, the work eventually takes on its own voice, unfolding over time, rather like a piece of music.
Awards and Appointments
2011 Elected President of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers
2009 Awarded Fenton Arts Prize
2008 Awarded PhD in Fine Art and The Chancellor’s Medal for outstanding doctoral research, University of Hertfordshire
2004 Awarded the Gwen May Student Prize by Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers
2004 Awarded MA (research) Fine Art by University of Hertfordshire
2003 Elected Fellow of Newlyn Society of Artists
2002 Awarded BA(Hons) Fine Art by University of Hertfordshire
Selected exhibitions
2024 London Original Print Fair, Somerset House, Strand, LondonThursday 21st March - Sunday 24th March
2024 Mini Picture Show, Bankside Gallery, London
2023 Small but mighty, Bankside Gallery, London
2023 International Original Print Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, London
2023 Bankside Summer Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, London
2023 43rd Miniprint International of Cadaques, Cadaques, Spain
2023 Colección Miniprint Cantabria, Castle Lighthouse, Cantabria, Spain
2023 RE Original Prints 2023, Bankside Gallery, London
2023 Engage, Newlyn Society of Artists, Tremenheere Sculpture Park,
Cornwall
2023 Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours 2023, Mall Galleries,
London
2023 London Original Print Fair, Somerset House, London
2023 Mini Picture Show, Bankside Gallery, London
2022 International Original Print Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, London
2022 International Mini-print Cantabria, V edition, Santander, Spain
2022 Summer at Bankside Gallery, Bankside Gallery, London
2022 London Lives, Bankside Gallery, London
2022 42nd Mini Print International of Cadaques, Cadaques, Spain
2022 London Original Print Fair, Somerset House, London
2022 RE Original Prints Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, London
2021 International Original Print Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, London
2021 Print REbels at the City Assembly House, Dublin
2021 Summer at Bankside Gallery, Bankside Gallery, London
2021 Looking forward, Newlyn Society of Artists, Tremenheere Gallery, Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, Gulval, Penzance, Cornwall
2021 The 41st Mini Print International of Cadaqués, Taller Galeria Fort in Cadaqués
2021 Collection Mini Print Cantabria, La Mer et les Phares a Bordeaux, Cervantes Institute, Bordeaux, France
2021 RE Original Prints Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, London
2020 New Work by the RE: Printmakers during Lockdown, Bankside Gallery, London
2020 Mini Print International Cantabria III Edition, Spain
2020 Summer at Bankside Gallery, Bankside Gallery, London
2019 London Original Print Fair, The Royal Academy of Art, London
2019 RE Original Prints, Bankside Gallery, London
2019 The Mini Picture Show, Bankside Gallery, London
2019 National Original Print Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, London
2018 Cambridge Print Biennale, The Pitt Building, Cambridge
2018 Print REbels, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
2018 IMPACT 10, International Printmaking Conference, Santander, Spain
2018 London Original print Fair, The Royal Academy, London
2018 Chapel Arts, Cheltenham
2018 Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London
2018 National Original Print Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, London
2018, The Burton Gallery, Bideford, Devon
2018 The Masters Screen and Stone, Bankside Gallery, London
2018 Off the wall, Bankside Gallery, London
2018 RE Summer Show, 'For Arts Sake', Ealing, London
2018 Print REbels, Bankside Gallery, London
2018 RE Originals, Bankside Gallery, London
2017 The Masters: Monoprint, Bankside Gallery, London
2017 Off the wall, Bankside Gallery, London
2017 Shakespeare: a celebration, RWS and RE Collaborative at California Lutheran University
2017 RE Originals, Bankside Gallery, London
2017 London Original Print Fair, The Royal Academy of Art, London
2016 Cambridge Original Printmaking Biennale, The Pitt Building, Cambridge
2016 The Masters: Intaglio, Bankside Gallery, London
2016 Mini-print Cadaques, Cadaques, Spain
2016 RE Originals, Bankside Gallery, London
2016 London Original Print Fair, The Royal Academy of Art, London
2015 National Original Print Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, London
2015 The Masters: Relief, Bankside Gallery, London
2015 London Original Print Fair, The Royal Academy of Art, London
2014 RE Originals, Bankside Gallery, London
2014 London Original Print Fair, The Royal Academy of Art, London
2013 Reigning cats and dogs, The Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
2013 Works on paper, Cornwall Contemporary Gallery, Penzance, Cornwall
2013 A Lasting Impression, The Mariners' Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall
2013 Impressit, University of Central Lancashire at Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston
2013 London Original Print Fair, The Royal Academy of Art, London
2013 The sketchbook show, Cornwall Contemporary Gallery, Penzance, Cornwall
2012 Ian Brown and Bren Unwin - Layer, Cornwall Contemporary Gallery, Cornwall
2012 Fabric of the land, The Lang Byre Gallery, Aberdeen, Scotland
2012 London Original Print Fair, The Royal Academy of Art, London
2012 8th British International Mini-print Exhibition, London Print Studio, London
2011 Burton Art Gallery and Museum, Bideford, Devon
2011 PRINT! Exchange Gallery, Penzance, Cornwall
2011 The Mini Picture Show, Bankside Gallery, London
2011 Uncharted Landscapes, Newlyn Society of Artists, St Ives, Cornwall
2011 London Original Print Fair, The Royal Academy of Art, London
2010 Bren Unwin: Dog in the Attic, Cornwall Contemporary Gallery, Penzance, Cornwall
2010 Penang International Print Exhibition, Penang State Museum and Art Gallery, Penang, Malaysia
2010 Off the wall, Bankside Gallery, London
2010 ART75, Jubilee Pool, Penzance, Cornwall
2010 Double Vision, The Exchange Gallery, Penzance, Cornwall
2010 Origin of Colour: Fabric of the Land, University of Aberdeen, Scotland
2009 IMPACT 6, international printmaking conference, University of the West of England, Bristol
2009 A Cornish Perspective, The Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
2009 London Original Print Fair, The Royal Academy of Art, London
2008 Rahimtulla Gallery, RaMoMa Museum of Modern Art, Nairobi
2008 Bren Unwin, Cornwall Contemporary Gallery, Penzance, Cornwall
2008 Summer in the City, Bankside Gallery, London
2008 PRESS, Cornwall Contemporary Gallery, Penzance, Cornwall
2007 My Cornwall, Cornwall Contemporary Gallery, Penzance, Cornwall
2007 A leaf from a sketch book, Bankside Gallery, London
2007 The Great Atlantic Gallery, Falmouth, Cornwall
2007 The Great Atlantic Gallery, St Just, Cornwall
2007 Lineage, Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall
2006 Originals 06, The Mall Galleries, London
2006 The Newlyn Society of Artists Annual Exhibition, Penzance, Cornwall
2006 Inside, outside, Bankside Gallery, London
2006 The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers Annual Exhibition, London
2005 Bren Unwin, North End, Gallery Tresco, Isles of Scilly
2005 Hertfordshire Open Exhibition, Margaret Harvey Gallery, St Albans, Herts
2005 Critic's Choice, selected by Nicholas Usherwood , The Campden Gallery, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire
2005 Discerning Eye exhibition, selected by Joan Bakewell, The Mall Galleries,London
2005 Critic's Choice, selected by Norbert Lynton, Lemon Street Gallery, Truro, Cornwall
2005 Bryan Pearce, Breon O'Casey and Bren Unwin, Newlyn Art Gallery, Newlyn, Cornwall
2005 Identity, The Great Atlantic Gallery, Falmouth, Cornwall
2005 Originals 05, The Mall Galleries, London
2005, The Great Atlantic Gallery, Monmouth
2005 The Penwith Society Winter Exhibition, St Ives, Cornwall
2004 Gallery Tresco, Isles of Scilly
2004 Little by Little, The Great Atlantic Gallery, St Just, Cornwall
2004 Anthony Frost, Anja Percival and Bren Unwin, The Great Atlantic Gallery, St Just, Cornwall
2004 The Penwith Society Summer Exhibition, St Ives, Cornwall
2004 The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers Annual Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, London
2004 Critic's Choice, selected by John Russell-Taylor, Newlyn Art Gallery, Newly, Cornwall
2004 Here comes the sun, Touring exhibition by Great Atlantic Map Works Gallery and Falmouth Arts Centre
2004 Adams and Unwin, University of Hertfordshire Gallery, Hatfield, Herts
2004 Identity, Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall
2003 Weather Report 2, Newlyn Art Gallery, Newlyn, Cornwall
2003 Bren Unwin, Intimate Landscape, The Great Atlantic Gallery, St Just, Cornwall
2003 Critic's Choice, selected by Joan Bakewell, Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall
2003 The Contemporary Gallery, Lavenham, Suffolk
2002 National Print Exhibition, The Mall Galleries, London
2001 The Penwith Society Summer Exhibition, St Ives, Cornwall
2001 Bren Unwin, The Great Atlantic Gallery, Market Square, St Just, Cornwall
2001 Bren Unwin and Michael Wright, The Netloft Gallery, Porthleven, Cornwall
2001 Bren Unwin and John Adams, The Place, Letchworth, Herts
2001 The Contemporary Gallery, Lavenham, Suffolk
2001 Hertfordshire Open Exhibition, Margaret Harvey Gallery, St Albans, Herts
2000 Bren Unwin - Silent Vigil, The Netloft Gallery, Porthleven, Cornwall
2000 National Print Exhibition, The Mall Galleries, London
2000 University of Hertfordshire Winter Exhibition, Hatfield, Herts
2000 The Great Atlantic Gallery, St Just, Cornwall
1999 The Roundhouse Gallery, Sennen, Cornwall
1999 Out of the Blue Gallery, Marazion, Cornwall
1999 Porthcurno Gallery, Porthcurno, Cornwall
1999 The Great Atlantic Gallery, St Just, Cornwall
1999 Bren Unwin and John Adams, The Maltings Gallery, Wheathampstead, Herts