.png)
Jen Orpin AMAFA
Manchester, UK
Recently sold work
Oil on cradled panel SOLD 🔴
About Jen Orpin
Jen Orpin (born Surrey, England, 1974) lives and works in Manchester. She studied at Manchester Metropolitan University (BA 1996) and has been a member of Rogue Artists’ Studios since 2000, she is also a Member of Manchester Academy of Fine Art.
She co-founded Rogue Women in 2019 and has organised and curated four survey exhibitions of its members and invited guest artists from around the UK. She is also the founder of A Small Space Artist Collective based in Manchester. Her motorway paintings have featured in several publications including the Guardian online and twice in the Observer’s New Review and on BBC Radio 6music and ITVX.
As well as being invited into exhibitions across the UK and abroad, she’s also shown in open exhibitions including the Jackson’s Painting Prize, The New Light Art Prize, The ING discerning Eye Exhibition, The Wells Art Contemporary, The Wales Open, The London Group open and the first and second HOME Exhibitions where she was shortlisted on both occasions. She’s also exhibited at art fairs in Manchester, London, South Korea and has been selected for the last three Royal Academy Summer Shows. She’s had solo shows in Manchester, London and Seoul and her work is held in private collections both here and internationally. Her work is also held in two public collections including New Art Gallery, Walsall and Manchester Art Gallery.
Artist Background
Artist Statement
The structures I focus on, often constructed from concrete and metal, brutal in nature are familiar landmarks that straddle well-travelled motorways and roads.
The motorway bridge, often unchanged and built to last, offer sturdiness and a consistent presence that spans decades in frequently developed and changing environments. They may
be accompanied by the addition of graffiti; protest slogans or nature and weeds might have taken hold only adding to this presence and giving these brutalist landmarks the enduring
quality of a monument.
The active human element is notably absent - cars and people are stripped away, leaving only the motorways, landmarks, and remanence of a human presence. The absence of human life accentuates these elements, shifting the focus to the intrinsic beauty of the pathways and their significance in our lives. Framed within the empty motorway, these depictions of bridges articulate their role as a transformative connector, symbolizing opportunity for change.
By documenting and recording these structures using the language of painting, I aim to expand our perceptions and viewpoints and challenge how we look at these structures in
our everyday landscapes and draw on the connections we make through our memories, nostalgia and belonging to these places.