St Ives at The Redfern

For over a century, St Ives has occupied a significant place within British art. Drawn by its extraordinary light, dramatic coastline, and close-knit artistic community, successive generations of painters and sculptors have been irresistibly drawn to Cornwall. From Alfred Wallis's instinctive depictions of the fishing town to the radical modernism of Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth, St Ives became synonymous with one of the defining artistic movements of twentieth-century Britain.

The Redfern Gallery has long played an integral role in this history. Within its first year of operating, the gallery became the first to exhibit the carvings of both Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, signalling an early commitment to the emerging language of British modernism. In the decades that followed, The Redfern Gallery championed many artists associated with the St Ives School providing an important platform for work that would come to define post-war British art. Paul Feiler's first solo exhibition at The Redfern Gallery in 1953 marked a pivotal moment in his career, enabling his move to Cornwall and establishing a relationship with the gallery that endured for more than half a century.

St Ives at The Redfern brings together artists whose work has been shaped by Cornwall across nearly one hundred years. Alongside historic figures including Alfred Wallis, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Roger Hilton CBE, Patrick Heron CBE, Peter Lanyon, Terry Frost RA, Margaret Mellis, Paul Feiler, Keith Vaughan, Catharine Armitage, and John Tunnard, the exhibition presents a contemporary generation of artists—Leigh Davis, Samuel Bassett, Ben Sanderson, Felicity Mara, Naomi Frears and Linder Sterling—whose practices have engaged with the Cornish landscape, atmosphere, and creative legacy of the region.

While each artist approaches Cornwall differently, common threads emerge: an enduring fascination with light, colour, material, and place; an attentiveness to the rhythms of the coastline; and a belief that landscape can be experienced not simply as subject matter but as a catalyst for artistic invention. The exhibition invites conversations across generations, revealing both continuity and reinvention within one of Britain's most celebrated artistic communities.

Presented during the summer months at the gallery's new home on Pall Mall, St Ives at The Redfern brings a little of Cornwall to central London, celebrating an artistic tradition that remains as vital today as it was nearly a century ago.