Jonathan Kenworthy was born in wartime Britain and started sculpture at the Royal College of Art aged eleven, going on to later study at the Royal Academy Schools. There, he won ten scholarships and became the youngest student to ever win the Gold Medal; this in 1965, the same year as his first exhibition in London’s West End.
Kenworthy’s early success allowed him the freedom to develop his art at his own pace. He creates movement with bold, abstract applications of clay, giving the broadly figurative themes a distinctive vigour and life, and punctuates this through refined touches and delicate detail. The images he has created have brought a fresh new approach and eye to sculpture and to bronze. Consequently, Kenworthy has an international following of private collectors, dealers and artists alike. In a career stretching over fifty years he has pursued his personal view with travel to the wild and remote areas of Africa and Asia, where he finds his subjects.
Last year saw the publication of a book covering his life as a sculptor from his precocious beginnings to present day and is entitled, Jonathan Kenworthy: Sculpture and Works on Paper. The book includes a catalogue raisonné of the bronzes which were exhibited and sold in London and New York between 1965-2008.
Kenworthy has a unique ability to model clay with a skill and sensitivity which remains unsurpassed in today’s hard-edged, commercial world.