“His generosity of spirit, his energy and his love of life are reflected in his work. Amid so much art that is glib, meretricious and spiritually empty, Draper is producing work that ravishes the eye and nourishes the soul.” Roger Berthoud, journalist, art historian and author of ‘The Life and Art of Kenneth Draper

Kenneth Draper RA, born 1944 was elected to be a Member of the Royal Academy in 1991. Having studied painting at Kingston School of Art, Draper went on to study sculpture at the Royal College of Art where he pursued his passion of the three dimensional form: pushing the boundaries of sculpture and exploring form and space beyond pure painting. Many of these early sculptures were made of wood, steel and resin (materials Draper still uses today) and were massive in scale – some more than 16ft high. At this time, Draper started to explore ways of incorporating paint into these structures to give them a feeling of weightlessness; this is a continuing theme that runs through his work over 40 years later - his work now evolving into smaller, yet hugely powerful and dramatic sculptural constructions on paper and board.

  "Kenneth Draper’s work hangs in some of the great art galleries of the world  as well as in the best of homes.... everywhere it hangs, everywhere his art is seen, it is cherished for its humanity and its challenge, the gorgeousness of its surface and the profound depths which lurk beneath. Life is richer for its presence.” Colin Roth, writer.

Kenneth Draper RA writes about his work: "Living and working on the Island of Menorca for the last few years has been the main inspiration for my work. Although a small Island, this prehistoric terrain is infinitely varied in geological structure and extremes of climate. The intense heat of July and August bake the earth so dry that it seems an impossibility that anything could survive. This is in stark contrast to winter where the ferocious north wind is so awesome it can bend the stoutest of trees almost double. This wind literally shapes the island's overall structure where hills and trees lean from north to south. In October the storms and rain immediately rejuvenate the earth which after the long hot summer changes the colour of the landscape from deep reds and orange to lush emerald greens which virtually appear overnight. There is also the magic of the “Lunar landscape” which seems to transport you to another world and the multitude of deep caves and labyrinths with echoing spaces and near absence of light.

This is the kind of landscape which most acutely fires my imagination in that it contains visual events or phenomena relating to its passage through time: how it is, how it was, and how in the future it might be. 'Events' which exude sensations of the history which brought them into being. A sense of time and change is paramount in all my responses to its cause and effect: the fixed and the evolving, the seen and the hidden, and my passion to express this. I am referring here to the physicality of the landscape; the very earth, wind, fire and water of which it is made. My emotive responses and feelings are also magnified by the particular time I am there. By this I mean the effusion of light, the depth of shadow, and the intensity of the way that the sun's brilliance at noon in August dematerialises objects as they melt into black shadows in the space which surrounds them. Then there is the light of night captured in the moon’s translucent beauty which belies its gravitational power to move oceans. 

Apart from the conflicting forces found in nature which shape the land, I am deeply moved by the penetrating scars of mines, quarries and excavations, and the often tragic yet disturbingly beautiful aftermath of places which have bean transformed by the industrial workings of man. This has held a fascination since my childhood in Yorkshire where the huge cones of waste scattered the skyline as a reminder of the earth removed from underground. The limestone quarries in Menorca are deep limestone “cubes” hand cut and hundreds of feet deep from which entire towns have been built. Now they are abandoned chambers which have the scale of cathedrals full of reflected light containing an astounding spiritual energy.

Within this extraordinary island with its excesses of heat and ravaging storms there also exists a myriad microscopic environment of detail where plants and flowers seam to defy the extreme elements in a struggle to survive, an inner world of intimacy to which I am increasingly drawn. The way a small cavity in a stone gives shelter to an embryonic growth which takes a similar shape to the cavity which contains it.  
 
The focus of the more recent work is to combine even closer the physicality of sculpture with illusions more generally associated with painting. The works are made in resins, steel, wood, copper, and occasional “found” object which are coloured with layers of oil and pure pigment.  Although the works have the fluidity of “painting” it is the sculptural forms which slowly gain prominence floating from the surface inviting the eye into another secret place. My overall desire is to make works which pay homage to, and celebrate the power of the natural world in its transient yet piercing beauty." Ken Draper RA February 2010

 Kenneth Draper’s work can be found major Public and Corporate Collections:

 Arthur Anderson, London
 Arts Council of Great Britain
 Arts Council of Wales
 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
 Cartwright Hall Museum and Art Gallery, Bradford
 Contemporary Art Society, London
 Courtauld Institute, London
 De Beer’s Collection, London
 Fitzwilliam Museum and Art Gallery, Cambridge
 Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, London
 Hammersmith Hospital, London
 Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, Lancashire
 ICI, London
 International Bank of Japan, London
 Leicestershire Education Authority
 Lloyds of London
 Lloyds TSB Bank, London
 M.A. Braganza & Co, London
 Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield,
 McCrory Corporation, New York, USA
 Mischon de Reya, London
 National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
 National Westminster Bank, London
 Pearl Assurance, London
 Royal Life Group
 Unilever PLC, London
 Usher Gallery, Lincoln
 

Solo Exhibitions

2010 El Castel, Menorca

Group Exhibitions

2010 Lisa Sharpe Contemporary Art, London

2010 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

2009 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

2008 “A Century of Sheffield Art” Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
         Derwent-Wye Fine Art, Rowsley, Derbyshire
         Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
         Invited Artist, Pastel Society, The Mall Galleries, London
2007 “Homage to Menorca”, Sa Nostra Foundation, Menorca. Two  person exhibition with Jean Macalpine
         Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
        “Circa 1976” Milton Keynes Gallery, Works from the Arts Council Collection
         Castlegate House Gallery, Cumbria
2006 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
2005 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
         Castlegate House Gallery, Summer Exhibiton, Cumbria
2004 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
2003 Contemporary Sculpture, Palm Beach, Florida
         EUROP’ART, Geneva
         Contemporary Art Fair, Chelsea, London
         Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
        ‘Sterling Stuff’ Royal Academy, London
2002 Contemporary Art Fair, Chelsea, London
        Twentieth Century Art Fair, Royal College of Art, London
        Gallery in Cork Street, London
        Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
2001 Contemporary Art Fair, Geneva, Switzerland
         International Art Exposition, Chicago, USA
         Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
         Twentieth Century Art Fair, Royal College of Art, London
         Contemporary Art Fair, Chelsea, London
2000 ‘Art Miami 2000’ Florida, USA
         Contemporary Art Fair, Chelsea, London
         Twentieth Century Art Fair, Royal College of Art, London
         ‘Fusion’ Riverhouse Gallery, Walton-on-Thames
1999 ‘Art Miami 99’ Florida, USA
‘         Art 99’ Islington, London
          Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
          Triennial Sculpture Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
         ‘Contemporary British Landscape’ Flowers East, London
1998 ‘Art Miami 98’ Florida, USA
         ‘Art 98’ Islington, London
         ‘The Poetry of Place’ Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, Suffolk
          Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
1997 ‘Art Miami 97’ Florida, USA
        ‘Art 97’ Islington, London
         Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
1996 ‘Art Miami 96’ Florida, USA
         ‘Art 96’ Islington, London
         Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
         Twentieth Century British Art Fair, London
1995 ‘Art 95’ Islington, London
          Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
          Geneva Art Fair, Geneva, Switzerland
          Manchester Fine Arts Fair, Manchester
          Twentieth Century Art Fair, Royal College of Art, London
          Group Exhibition, Adelson Galleries, New York, USA
1994 Contemporary Art Society Market, London
         Bridport Arts Centre, Dorset
         Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
         Works on Paper, Adelson Galleries, New York, USA
         Chesil Gallery, Portland, Dorset
         Twentieth Century Art Fair, Royal College of Art, London
        ‘Space Redefined’ Shad Thames Galleries, Butlers Wharf, London
        ‘Small is Beautiful’ Flowers East, London
         ‘Landscape’ New Academy Gallery, London
1993 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
        ‘Art 93’ Islington, London
         Chicago International Art Expostion, USA
        ‘Painting the Earth’ John Jones Gallery, London
         Contemporary Art Society Market, London
        ‘Small is Beautiful’ Flowers East, London
1992 ‘Aspects of British Abstraction, The Poetic Trace’ Adelson Galleries, New York, USA
        ‘British Sculpture in the Twentieth Century’ Millfield, Somerset
        ‘Landscape’ On Line Gallery, Southampton
        ‘Sense of Place’ Cleveland Bridge Gallery, Bath
        ‘Art 92’ Islington, London
        Contemporary Art Society Market, London
        Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
1991 Contemporary Art Fair, Miami, USA
       ‘Art 91’ Islington, London
       ICAF Olympia, London
      ‘Stonewall’ ICA Galleries, London
      Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
      Contemporary Art Society Market, London
      Wessex Artists, Parnham House, Dorset
      Group Exhibition, On Line Gallery, Southampton
1990 International Gallery Invitational Art Fair, Chicago, USA
        Contemporary International Art Exposition, Chicago, USA
        ‘Art 90’ Islington, London
        ICAF Olympia, London
       Group Exhibition, Glenn Green Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
       Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
       Bath Art Fair, Bath
       Group Exhibition, Louise Hallett Gallery, London
       Contemporary Art Fair, Sydney, Australia
       Contemporary Art Society Market, London
1989 Contemporary International Art Exposition, Chicago, USA
       Contemporary Art Society Market, London
      Artist in Residence, Chesil Gallery, Portland, Dorset
1988 Contemporary International Art Exposition, Chicago, USA
       Group Exhibition, Louise Hallett Gallery, London
      Warwick Arts Trust Collection, Warwick Arts Trust, London
      Art in the Market Place, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
      Contemporary Art Society Market, London
     ‘Landscape’ Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
1987 Contemporary International Art Exposition, Chicago, USA
      ‘Art for the City’ Lloyds of London
      Contemporary Art Society Market, London
      Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
      ‘Hunter Collection of Twentieth Century Modern Masters’ Courtauld Gallery, London
1986 ‘Hidden Landscape’ Juda Rowan Gallery, London
       Contemporary Art Society Market, London
1985 Contemporary Art Society Market, London
1984 ‘Questions About Sculpture’ Arts Council touring Exhibition
         Group Exhibition, Friedus Ordover Gallery, New York, USA
1983 The Sculpture Show, Hayward Gallery, London
         Group Exhibition, Studio Odd, Hiroshima, Japan
        ‘Small is Beautiful’ Angela Flowers Gallery, London
1982 ‘Coloured Constructions’ Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
1981 ‘British Sculpture in the Twentieth Century’ Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
1980 ‘The Human Factor’ Arts Council Touring Exhibition
         ‘The British Art Show’ Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield (and tour)
1979 Tolly Cobbold Eastern Arts Exhibition, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (and tour)
         British Sculptor’s Drawings, The Minories, Colchester
         Contemporary Works on Paper, Gainsborough House, Sudbury
1978 ‘Fragile Stones Make Art’ National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
          Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
         Works on Paper, Artist’s Market, London
1977 Tolly Cobbold Eastern Arts Exhibition, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (and tour)
         Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
         Silver Jubilee Exhibition of Contemporary British Sculpture, Battersea Park, London
        ‘Yorkshire Sculptors’ Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Bretton Hall, Yorkshire
1976 Arts Council, Recent Purchases, Hayward Gallery, London
1972 ‘British Sculptors ‘72’, Royal Academy, London
‘        British Sculptors ‘72’ Related Works, Redfern Gallery, London
1971 Seven Redfern Artists, Redfern Gallery, London
         British Sculptors Drawings, Bonino Gallery, Buenos Aires (and touring South America)
         Eight Individuals, Gravers Gallery, Sheffield (and Arts Council tour)
         Jacobs Ladder Inc., Washington DC, USA
1968 Summer Exhibition, Redfern Gallery, London
1965 Young Contemporaries
         Summer Exhibition, Redfern Gallery, London
1964 London Group, London

Commissions and Awards

2002 Designed commemorative Poster and Banner for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
1981 Sculpture for Bradford University, Arts Council Project
1976 Arts Council of Great Britain Bursary
1974 Outdoor Sculpture for John Dalton Building, University of Manchester
1971 Mark Rothko Memorial Award, travel bursary to USA
1965 Young Contemporaries prize for Sculpture