Clive Hicks-Jenkins was born in Newport, South Wales, in 1951. In the early part of his career, he was a choreographer and stage director. In the 1990's he turned away from theatre to concentrate on his underlining passion for painting.

His work has been praised by critics in The Independent, Modern Painters and Art Review. Simon Callow has called him ‘one of the most individual and complete artists of our time' and Nicholas Usherwood in Galleries has described his work as ‘reflective, expressive painting of the highest order.’  

For the past two years Clive Hicks-Jenkins has been making a series of fourteen screenprints based on the mystical medieval poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, using Simon Armitage’s 2007 translation published by Faber & Faber. The work has been a collaboration with Daniel Bugg, whose Penfold Press has produced and published the editions of prints. This exhibition is the second and concluding Gawain themed exhibition at Martin Tinney Gallery, with all 14 prints on show, accompanied by art historian James Russell’s insightful observations on the images. The studies and paintings made in the process of creating the prints are included in the exhibition.  

Clive writes: "Each screenprint is constructed from many layers of transparent ink, all carefully aligned and overprinted to make the complete image. Initially I make each layer of the artwork on a transparent sheet of lithographic film. There are up to twelve layers per print, and  they're rendered only in black and red as the intended colours don't enter the equation until the printing stage. Once the layers of film for a print have been completed, each is transferred to a micromesh ‘screen’ by Dan. Inks are mixed according to sample colours I produce, and the printing begins. No-one really has a clear idea of how anything will look until the image begins to emerge, layer by layer from the printing press. It can feel like magic."                                     Clive Hicks-Jenkins October 2017