Christine Kinsey (born October 1942) is a Welsh artist, author and curator, now based in Pembrokeshire.[1] [2] She was the co-founder and artistic director of Chapter Workshops and Centre for the Arts, Cardiff, now called Chapter Arts Centre.[3]
Kinsey was born in Pontypool, and has developed a group of female characters who emerge repeatedly in her paintings. These characters enact roles within the themes that she explores in her work[4] including what it was like to grow up female in the industrial valleys of south east Wales;[5] and Cymreictod (a sense of feeling, being Welsh). Her touring solo show, Cymreictod – Women of Wales (1989–91), was reviewed in the magazine Spare Rib.[6] Kinsey also examines the depiction of women within a western Christian culture.[7]
Words and poetry have always been an important influence in Kinsey's work. In 2014, she curated the exhibition Correspondences – contemporary painting in response to the life and writing of R. S. Thomas at Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, Pwllheli. The exhibition included work by 14 contemporary artists based in Wales including Kinsey, Osi Rhys Osmond, Iwan Bala, Ivor Davies and Mary Lloyd Jones. The catalogue for the exhibition included poetry by Menna Elfyn and Myrddin ap Dafydd.[8] Later the same year, the exhibition was amalgamated by the curator Lynne Crompton with work from artists responding to Dylan Thomas at Oriel Q Gallery in Narberth.[9] At an event to mark R. S. Thomas’ centenary in 2013, Kinsey was invited by the event organisers, the University of Wales Press and Swansea University professor M Wynn Thomas (R. S. Thomas’ biographer and executor of his literary estate), to talk about the ways in which the poetry of R. S. Thomas has influenced her art.[10]
Her work is represented in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea, Contemporary Art Society of Wales in Cardiff and Newport Museum in Newport.[1]
2005 Researcher / Co-Editor - Christine Kinsey / Dr. Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan; Imaging the Imagination; An exploration of the relationship between the image and the word in the art of Wales. Published by Gwasg Gomer, Llandysul.
2022 Curator / Editor – Christine Kinsey; HON Artistiaid Benywaidd yng Nghymru / Women Artists in Wales. A fully bilingual book (Welsh and English) published by The H’mm Foundation, Swansea.
2023 Artist / Author – Christine Kinsey; Truth, Lies & Alibis – Encounters in Images and Words by Christine Kinsey. Published by The H’mm Foundation, Swansea.
1986 A Pilgrims Progress in Painting and Drawing.
1989 Cymreictod-Menywod Cymru / Women of Wales;
1994 Bywyd Arall / Another Life; Exhibition catalogue
1999 Meta; Imaging the Imagination; Exhibition catalogue
2001 Llais / Voice; Exhibition catalogue
2006 Ymddiddan / Colloquy; Exhibition CD Newport Museum and Art Gallery.
2014 Correspondences: Contemporary painting in response to the life and writing of R.S. Thomas.
1996 Welsh Books Council magazine. Review of ‘David Jones Maker Unmade’ Derek Shiel and Jonathan Miles and a ‘Fusilier at the Front’ selected by Anthony Hyne.
1996 Catalogue statement Student of the Year. Glyn Vivian Art Gallery and Museum, Swansea.
1999 Arts and the Welsh Assembly, Western Mail. January 29th
1999 Interviewed by Gilly Adams on Chapter Art Centre; Planet Magazine June 1999
2003 Review David Jones Journal ‘The Private David Jones’ exhibition Glyn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea.
2005 Book; Imaging the Imagination: An exploration of the relationship between the image and the word in the art of Wales. Published by Gwasg Gomer, Llandysul.
2008/9 De Numine Magazine, The Image and Word / Myth and Imagination in the Art of Christine Kinsey: Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre, University of Wales, Lampeter.
2009 Planet Magazine 193 Christine Kinsey A Space of Silent. Belonging / An Artists Diary.
2015 Encounters with Osi – Remembering Osi Rhys Osmond. Overviews – On Painting. H'mm Foundation, Swansea.
1995 Just Good Friends – Towards Lesbian and Gay Theology of relationships. Elisabeth Stuart (Mowbray).
2004 Beyond the Difference – Welsh Literature in Comparative Contexts. Editors Alyce von Rothkirch and Daniel Williams (University of Wales Press, Cardiff).
2005 Vualiuotas Bučinys / Veiled Kiss. Menna Elfyn: (Vaga Vilnius, Lithuania).
2018 Women, Identity and Religion in Wales Theology, Poetry, Story. Manon Ceridwen James, University of Wales Press.
2019 Rocking the Boat. Angela V John – Modern Wales Series Editor. Francesca Rhydderch – Parthian, Cardigan.
2021 Cyfrinachau / Eluned Phillips. Golygwyd gyda Rhagymadrodd gan Menna Elfyn – HONNO Clasuron.
2023 Notes from a Eucharistic Life. Manon Ceridwen James. Cinnamon Press.
1990 Spare Rib Magazine Issue 211
1999 Certain Welsh Artists; Seren, Poetry Wales Press Ltd, Bridgend.
2005 Imaging the Imagination; An exploration of the relationship between the image and the word in the art of Wales. Gwasg Gomer Press 2005
2006 Planet magazine Issue 179 Review of exhibition Ymddiddan / Colloquy
2006 Re:Imaging Wales; A Yearbook of the Visual Arts. Editor Hugh Adams. Seren, Poetry Wales Press Ltd, Bridgend
2009 Planet Magazine Issue 193 - Article on Chapter Art Centre
2010 Biblical Art from Wales; Sheffield Phoenix Press. . pages 314 / 315 / 316
2013 R.S. Thomas: Serial Obsessive: M. Wyn Thomas. University of Wales Press. .
2015 Post-War to Post Modern; Dictionary of Artists in Wales. Page 146; Gomer, Llandysul.