Neale Howells b. 1965

  • Neale Howells was born in Neath, South Wales studied at Bath Art College graduating in 1990. His studio is based...

    Neale Howells was born in Neath, South Wales studied at Bath Art College graduating in 1990. His studio is based in Port Talbot where he often invites people in to discuss the work and raise questions about what contemporary art is. He has worked with various creative people in wales in music and film. His work has grown through a reputation of creating imaginative provocative works that the viewer can come back to time and time again to see new things.

     

    Neale Howells is one of very few painters whose work still excites the strongest emotions in people. Amongst artists he is possibly the only one in the last thirty years to have earned the double laurels of suffering not one, but two exhibitions to be closed down before they had a chance to open. And yet the barely legible scrawls that run through his paintings and have upset some Councils usually originate in nothing more sinister than snatches of conversation from the edited contents of a Radio Wales phone-in or the afternoon play on Radio 4. In Howell’s work they provide a visual rhythm to the painting, a meaningless, background noise that is later obliterated by drips of paint or the outline of a figure. Howells is surprisingly meticulous about his painting. The work may give the appearance of being created without thought but in reality he keeps a tight control over the many disparate elements that weave their way through each picture.

     

    You cannot describe chaos by being chaotic any more than you can describe fear by screaming and the works’ haphazard beauty is a hard-won battle. Occasionally visitors to his studio feel compelled to have a go themselves and Neale, being the good-natured person he is, readily hands over a brush. Yet it always ends in him repainting the panel. To convey the sort of random accumulation of marks so convincingly and on such a huge scale requires a disciplined vision and an incredible delicacy of touch. The two characteristics one would least expect to discover on first coming across Howells’s work.

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  • The work is not graffiti because it never appears to be a single person’s message. It is the accumulation of graffiti: layers of messages jostling for space, words that have been scratched out and tiny pencil doodles filling the gaps. Sometimes a huge aerosol figure or a sprayed tag will be the final layer of a painting that seems to represent decades of abuse but shares the same fascinating beauty you find lifting the lid of an old school desk.
  • Exhibitions
  • Solo Exhibitions 2020 Return of Forever, John Martin Gallery Chelsea, London 2017 Recent Paintings, John Martin Gallery, London 2014 It’s...

    Solo Exhibitions 

    2020 Return of Forever, John Martin Gallery Chelsea, London
    2017  Recent Paintings, John Martin Gallery, London
    2014 It’s Nothing Without You, John Martin Gallery, London
    2012 American Mama Gun Run Part 1, John Martin Gallery, London
    American Mama Gun Run Part 2, Edward Cutler Gallery, Milan
    2008 Magic Book, John Martin Gallery, London
    2008 Bad company may need positive advertising, Mission Gallery, Swansea
    2005 John Martin Chelsea, London
    2003 Phoenix Gallery, Brighton
    Washington Gallery Penarth, South Wales
    2002 Ormeau Baths Gallery Belfast, Washington Gallery Penarth
    Millennium Plaza Cardiff, Washington Gallery, Penarth, South Wales
    2001 Studio Voltaire Gallery London
    2000 Tabernacle Machynlleth, Washington Gallery Penarth, South Wales
    1999 Washington Gallery Penarth, South Wales
    1998 Recent Work, Washington Gallery,Penarth, South Wales
    Liverpool film festival
    1997 ‘Berlin Works’ Swansea Arts Workshop, Swansea
    ‘Works 94-95’, Pontardawe Arts Centre, Pontardawe
    1996 ‘The Wall’, Neath Museum, Neath

    Group Exhibitions

    2018 Dubai Art Fair, John Martin Gallery, London
    2018 LAF, John Martin Gallery, London
    2011 Art Athina, John Martin Gallery, Greece
    Arte Fiera, John Martin Gallery, Bologna
    2010 Art Athina, John Martin Gallery, Greece
    Neale Howells and Noe Babel, Square 1 Art, West Sussex
    2009 Storylines, John Martin Gallery, London
    2008 London Art Fair, John Martin Gallery
    2007 London Art Fair, John Martin Gallery
    2004 London Art Fair, John Martin Gallery
    2003 Phoenix Gallery, Brighton
    2002 Fresh 3 Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
    2001 Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast
    2000 Purchase Prize Pontypridd
    National Eisteddfod, Llanelli
    Tabernacle Machynlleth, Welsh Group / Pencil Power
    Unterland Ausstellung, Germany Promotion of Neath
    Battersea Art Fair, London
    1999 Reading Images’, St Davids Hall, Cardiff
    1998 Purchase Prize, University of Glamorgan
    National Eisteddfod, Bridgend
    Black and White, Y-Tabernacl, Wales
    1997 9th Mostyn Open, Llandudno, North Wales
    Young Wales 4, RCA, North Wales
    1996 National Eisteddfod of Wales, Bala
    1995 National Eisteddfod of Wales, Conway

    Public Collections/Commissions

    2002 Millenium Plaza, Cardiff Studio on-site
    2001 Sony Head Office, London
    Red Dragon Radio, Cardiff
    Know Your Enemy album cover for The Manic Street Preachers
    1995 Black & White, Grand Theatre Swansea, Y- Tabernacl, Wales