Ken Turner is 100 years old, still painting, and celebrating his birthday with a solo show at Penzance’s Wharfside Gallery, 10-7 Tuesday to Sunday, 23 July to 4 August 2026.
If you google there are very few artists alive and working at this age and that in itself made me approach the show with awe akin to seeing Keith Richard perform, and he and Mick Jagger are a mere 82 years old.
It’s a large room full of big square paintings in a vigorous expressionist style that convey emotion - anguish, rage or excitement.
‘My Ride Over a Tesla Car’, 2025, is one of the most memorable as it’s linked to Ken Turner’s performance, actually driving in a Sherman tank over a Tesla car with FASCISM as its number plate, as a protest against Musk and all he stands for. What a wild and genius idea.
You can watch this and many of Ken Turner’s previous performances on video there and headphones are provided.
There are also available to buy two books Ken has written.
The breadth, inventiveness, humour, outrage and variety are inspirational. Also the sheer sangfroid to keep going, keep caring about the state of the world, and the craziness of the art world, despite the seeming indifference of people who are passive as Ken tries again and again to provoke them.
‘Grief of the World’ is a quietly grim picture of endurance with a face rather like Ken’s own.
‘Nature is Crying Out’ is a wonderfully complex composition carried out with such panache and vivid sense of design that it holds your attention.
Well here’s a happy birthday to Ken Turner.
An exhibition I leave feeling encouraged to continue.
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