selected group exhibitions

2024       ‘Beep Painting Biennial 2024′, Elysium Gallery, Swansea (November-December)

2024       ‘The Euro-Wales 92 Group: Then and Now’, Turner House, Penarth (June-July)

This exhibition featured 6 male artists (myself included) and 6 female artists.  It bridged thirty years or so by bringing together selected pre- and post-Brexit artworks (from around about 1987-97 and 2014-24). Nine new contributors (Tony Alcock, Jenny Allan, Heather Eastes, Lorna Edmiston, Mary Husted, Dilys Jackson, Gus Payne, Gerda Roper and Alan Salisbury) were invited to join three of the 1992-3 founders of the group (Robert Greetham, Glyn Pooley and Ceri Thomas) to show pro-European works.

2024       ‘Imaging Wales: Then and Now / Llunio Cymru: Ddoe a Heddiw’, Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy (March)

2016       ‘4 Artists: 4 Journeys’, Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy

This exhibition consisted of works by me and three (former) Welsh Group colleagues Heather Eastes, Ken Elias and Gus (Gustavius) Payne.

https://www.a-n.co.uk/events/4-artists-4-journeys/

2014       ‘Dylan’, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth

2014       ‘Dylan Thomas Centenary 1914-2014: Swansea Print Workshop’, Oriel y Bont, Pontypridd

https://gallery.southwales.ac.uk/past-exhibitions/dylan-thomas-centenary-1914-2014/

2014      ‘Dylan Thomas Dialogues’, Oriel Ceri Richards Gallery, Taliesin, Swansea

These three Dylan-related exhibitions included my ‘Especially when the October wind’ etching with aquatint and the first one also included my pastel portrait of Charles Fisher (2003-4), friend of Dylan Thomas, whom I had met in Swansea when he was a very lively 89.

2011       ‘3 Artists: 3 Journeys’, National Assembly for Wales (Senedd and Pierhead Futures Gallery), Cardiff Bay

This exhibition consisted of works by me and two RCA/WG colleagues Heather Eastes and Ken Elias.  It was sponsored and opened by Jane Hutt, AM.  I showed a series of images based upon my own likeness.

2010       ‘Gwena! Portreadau o’r Cymry / Say Cheese! Portraits of the Welsh’, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth

This big, bilingual exhibition, originated by the National Library, consisted of portrait works by a wide range of artists including myself and my late father.  Others exhibited were Augustus John, Evan Walters and the contemporary photographer Bernard Mitchell.

2008-09      ‘Mapping the Welsh Group at 60 / Mapio’r Grŵp Cymreig yn 60’, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth and touring Wales

This big, bilingual exhibition was researched and curated by me, with the aid of a £10K Individual Production Grant from the Arts Council of Wales.  The semi-retrospective show presented nearly one hundred works by almost fifty WG members (including two by myself) produced in or since the mid to late 1990s.  It was opened, in its fullest form, at the National Library in November 2008 by Alun Ffred Jones, then AM and Minister of Culture, Heritage, Welsh Language and Sport.  It toured in 2009 to the Royal Cambrian Academy and Newport Museum and Art Gallery in reduced forms due to space restrictions.

2006       ‘Grace Williams Centenary’, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth; Vale of Glamorgan Library, Barry; Gŵyl Gregynog / Gregynog Festival, Gregynog; National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff Bay

These exhibitions featured either my painting ‘Grace Mary Williams, Composer’ (2001-02) oil on board, 59 x 79 cm, or an actual size facsimile of it produced by the National Library.  This facsimile was subsequently acquired by Barry Library for permanent display.  I contributed to the BBC Radio 3 programme ‘Grace Williams: Composer of the Week’ presented by Donald Macleod to talk about my picture.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02kt0v8

2006        ‘The Painted Pot’, Newport Museum and Art Gallery, Newport

This themed exhibition included my painting ‘Tŷ-tea, Guard-gardd’ (1996-98), watercolour and pencil on paper, 64 x 90 cm.  It contains two figures (perhaps in time-lapse), a tea cosy, tea pot, meat fork and colander.  It was reproduced by the gallery and subsequently in the new reference book ‘Post-War to Post-Modern: A Dictionary of Artists in Wales’ (Llandysul: Gomer 2015).

2005        ‘Talking Heads’, St David’s Hall, Cardiff

2005-       Royal Cambrian Academy of Art, Conwy

I was elected to the Royal Cambrian Academy in 2005 and served on its Council from 2007 to 2010. In June 2019 I began my second term on the Council and have exhibited with the Cambrian whenever possible over the last 19 years.  The Academy was founded in 1881 and consisted of mainly north Wales and English artists until its president Sir Kyffin Williams began the process of opening it up to also include artists from mid and south Wales in the 1990s.  The RCA showed at the Kooywood Gallery Cardiff in 2015 and at the Attic Gallery Swansea in 2016.

2003-05        ‘Especially when the October wind’

I was one of twelve artists involved in this Swansea Print Workshop exhibition to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Dylan Thomas.  It was given a preview by the Welsh Assembly Government in Brussels and then toured around Wales and to the Wales International Centre, Chrysler Building, New York.

2003-04        ‘Responses to Ceri Richards’, Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea

For this exhibition I revisited Porthceri/Porthkerry, near Barry, and a number of works based upon the south Wales coast by Ceri Richards to produce my own picture.

2003        ‘Beaux Arts Gallois / Celf a Chrefft Cymru / Art from Wales’, Mortagne-sur-Gironde

2002-17         The Welsh Group

I was elected to the Welsh Group in 2002 and served on the Committee from 2004 to 2010.  I exhibited with the group in Wales and abroad for fifteen years, until 2017, and was elected an honorary member in 2018.  [See: David Moore, ‘The Welsh Group at 70’, Crooked Window/The Welsh Group 2018.]  It began life as the South Wales Group in 1948 and was renamed the Welsh Group in 1975.  The Welsh Group-Düsseldorf exchange exhibition ‘Yma ac Acw/Hier und Da/Here and There’ (organised by Heather Eastes) began in Wales in 2014 and continued in Düsseldorf in 2015.  [See: Heather Eastes (ed), ‘Yma ac Acw/Hier und Da/Here and There’, The Welsh Group 2014]

2000-01         ‘Pwy ydym ni? / What makes Wales?’, National Museum and Gallery Cardiff

This highly original, bilingual, evolving exhibition was researched and curated by Kenneth Brassil.  My paintings and mixed media works, together with small pieces by my art students, were hung alongside major works by the likes of Jack Crabtree, Josef Herman and Richard Wilson.

2000, 2001       ‘Welsh Artist of the Year’ (annual exhibition), St David’s Hall, Cardiff

2000, 2001       ‘Swansea Open’ (annual exhibition), Glynn Vivian Art Gallery

These four shows included images based upon my own likeness.

1998       Wales Euro-Summit, City Hall, Cardiff

1993       ‘Art in Sport’, Old Library, Cardiff

Both of these included my life-size painting ‘Colin Jackson, Sprint Hurdler’ (1991/93) oil on lined board, 183 x 114 cm.  The summit was attended by Nelson Mandela.

1993       ‘Euro-Wales ’92 Group’, Third Wave Gallery, Cardiff

This exhibition, held on the top floor gallery of the Jacob’s Market building, launched what turned out to be the short-lived Euro-Wales ’92 Group which I co-founded in 1992 and which ran until 1993.

1991       ‘Thomas Twice’, Rhondda Heritage Park Gallery, Trehafod

This was a two-person exhibition of my paintings and the sculptures of Robert Thomas.  Its title was derived from my paternal grandfather’s nickname and was opened by Professor Dai Smith who also interviewed me for the BBC Radio Wales arts programme ‘First Hand’.

1986       ‘Welsh Group: Small Prints and Sculptures’ (touring exhibition) Wales

This was the first and only time I exhibited with the Welsh Group prior to my election as a member sixteen years later.

1985       ‘4 into ‘85’, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth

All four of us (Sunil Chhatralia, Kenneth Hay, Ceri Thomas and Steve Whitehead) were of a similar age and associated with the Visual Art department at Aberystwyth University.  Sunil was a BA student, I was an MA student and Ken and Steve were part-time art lecturers, having studied there themselves.

1984       ‘National Eisteddfod of Wales’, Lampeter

My ‘Cartoon of Contemporary Wales’ was selected for the arts and crafts pavilion exhibition and was acquired by one of the people who appeared in the picture, Lord Gordon Parry, Chairman of the Wales Tourist Board.

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