Tess Jaray: Paintings from 1966

Poppy Bowers, Senior Curator (Exhibitions), The Whitworth, Manchester, UK:

The paintings presented here carry the foundational principles on which Jaray cultivated her enduring practice. Patterns from nature, architecture and art provide the context. Inspired by geometry as well as dreams, the world is transfigured by her hand. Abstracted forms hover between stasis and motion, inside and outside, near and far, containing a sensation that the artist describes as a “magnetism that equally attracts and rejects”.

photos by Jack Elliot Edwards

On the 24th of September, a preview evening was held with speeches delivered in memory of Tess who died on the 24th May 2026.

These talks, delivered by collaborator and friend, Richard Davey and curator and art historian, Natalie Rudd, can be watched below.

The exhibition continues until the 11th December, 2026.

Ben Hunter Gallery
44 Duke Street St James’s
London, SW1Y 6DD