Art House Open Lecture: Dean Kenning

About

Hosted at the Art House, Worcester the lecture series offers a unique opportunity to hear firsthand from some of the most exciting contemporary artists currently making work in the UK. The talks offer the opportunity to engage in thought-provoking dialogues with the artists (via a Q&A), connect with Worcestershire’s artistic community, and gain an understanding of artistic processes and influences.

Dean Kenning (b. 1972, Hounslow, UK) is a London-based artist and writer whose works include kinetic/robotic/sonic sculptures, videos and diagrams. His ‘vitalist’ kinetic works seek to generate pathos, disquiet and humour through their visceral and compulsive qualities and behaviours, whilst bringing inert matter ‘to life’. He also has a wide-ranging manual diagramming practice that employs an autodidactic and interdisciplinary spirit to explore political, philosophical and scientific material. He won the Mark Tanner Sculpture Prize in 2020, making new robotic works for the touring exhibition Evolutionary Love (Standpoint Gallery, Bury Art Museum, Cross Lane Projects). Other recent solo exhibitions are Psychobotanical (Matt's Gallery, 2019); The Origin of Life (Beaconsfield, 2019); and Where IT Was (Piper Keys, 2018). Recent group shows include: The Soft Display (Paradise Works, 2020); Guest, Ghost, Host: Machine (Serpentine Marathon, 2017); and EXO EMO (Greene Naftali, 2017).

In 2023 he co-organised Poor Things with Emma Hart, a group exhibition of sculpture about social class (Fruitmarket). Collaborative art projects include the Diagram Research Group (Flat Time House, 2020); the Social Morphology Research Unit (Space Studios, 2019); the Capital Drawing Group (Bergen Assembly, 2019); Sick Monday (various screening venues, 2018-19); and Diagram Research Use & Generation Group (ICA, 2015). His interactive kinetic sound installation The Origin of Life was recently acquired for the Arts Council Collection. Kenning has published articles in journals such as Third Text, The Journal of Visual Art Practice, Art Monthly and Mute, including on the theory and practice of diagramming, on ‘idiocy’ as a mode of art practice, on fine art pedagogy, and on the politics of art and art education. He is a Research Fellow at Kingston School of Art where he supervises practice-based PhDs. He is also an Associate Lecturer in Fine Art at Central St Martins.