Art on a Postcard for War Child UK

About 

Martin Kerrison is a painter of figurative and magical realist paintings.  

The ‘Fairground’ series combines magical realism with social satire and commentary. Set by the coast, fun fairs, lighthouses, beached icons of consumerism, armies of men in suits; serve as characters and backdrops for a very contemporary farce. There is a sense of a garden of earthly delights gone wrong, a bonfire of the vanities; as lost, often surreal figures, grotesques, at once trapped in their own conceit and social manner strut across apocalyptic amusement parks. ‘Alpha’ males launch themselves in flying dodgem cars in vain attempts at transcendence.   

The ‘Small Things’ series considers the beauty of small objects, the fragility and transience of life and the natural world through the process of traditional realism. Envisaged as portraits, the paintings serve as metaphorical confrontations with the human condition. Some can be considered as reflecting wider societal issues such as climate crises and war. 

Figurative painting, theatre-design, portraiture and landscape were initially areas of interest before the current catalogue of work emerged from 2009. His work features in private collections in the UK, Europe, USA and Australia. 

Education 

Martin Kerrison graduated from the University of Northumbria: BA Hons Fine Art (Painting). He completed a PGCE course at Oxford in Art/ Design/German and an MA in History of Art at Birkbeck, University of London passing with ‘Distinction’. He has combined a career in education with furthering his development as an artist in London. He relocated to Yorkshire in 2021. 

Select Exhibitions/Awards 

Martin Kerrison has exhibited widely, particularly in the London area, most notably in the RA Summer Exhibitions of 2015, 2020 and 2022.  

Summary of Exhibitions 

Royal Academy Summer Shows, London 2015, 2020, 2022 

‘Visually Literate2’ Menier Gallery, London 

‘Visually Literate’ Fitzrovia Gallery, London 

‘Visually Literate’ Fitzrovia Gallery, London 

‘Reinventing the Selfie’ Stables Gallery, Orleans House, Richmond 

‘Anagrams’ Kingston Museum 

‘Joi de Vivre’ Cobham 

‘Joi de Vivre’ Hampton Court Village 

HIVE 2015, Harrogate Expo 

‘Under the Radar’ Oil and Water Gallery, London 

Orso Major Gallery, London 

‘Outside In’ Kingston Grammar School 

‘Topographies’ Orso Major Gallery, London 

Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, London 

‘Utopia/Dystopia’ Riverside Gallery, Richmond 

Platform 1 Gallery, London (Solo Show) 

Riverside Gallery, Barnes 

FAB Kingston University 

FAB Michigan University USA 

Castlegate Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne 

Statement about AOAP Submitted Artwork   

‘Alpha’ presents a ‘child-man’ from Martin Kerrison’s ‘Fairground’ series of paintings. The ‘Alpha’ male in his dodgem car, has spun-off the fairground ‘Merry-go-Round’; a painting full of suited men in red dodgem cars. This fairground ride alludes to Mark Gertler’s painting of the same title, depicting WWI combatants. The ‘child-man’ in ‘Alpha’, with upgraded, cartoon machine guns now hunts the skies for a ‘mission’.  

‘Still Standing’ from the ‘Small Things’ series depicts a bruised and battered pear ravaged by its mortal state, still standing in the face of desperate odds. The effect of time, injury and decay as they are played out on the skin and underlying flesh of the pear is observed and recorded in detail. As a metaphor, the image can be seen as reflecting anxiety related to the current climate crisis and war in Ukraine. 

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