Clive Hicks-Jenkins’ astonishing illustrations of Greek classics head to Cardiff

Stephen Price

Hot on the tail of Clive Hicks-Jenkins’ recent exhibitions at Carmarthen and Hay on Wye, a highly anticipated exhibition of his astonishing Iliad & Odyssey works is set to take place in Cardiff from this month.

The early part of his career was spent as a choreographer and theatre director, but since the 1990s he has become well known as an artist.

His work has been praised by critics in The Independent, Modern Painters and Art Review. Simon Callow has called him ‘one of the most individual and complete artists of our time’ and Nicholas Usherwood in Galleries has described his work as ‘reflective, expressive painting of the highest order’.

His paintings, prints and artists’ books are in numerous public collections, including the National Museum of Wales, the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art Wales and more. He is a Royal Cambrian Academician and an Honorary Fellow of Aberystwyth University School of Art.

In 2023 Clive Hicks-Jenkins was invited to produce illustrations for the Folio Society’s new double-edition of Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey.

From his then Aberystwyth home, and now new home and studio in Monmouthshire, Clive has over the course of these past years completed this undertaking with the Folio Society’s release of a breathtakingly beautiful unfolding box containing two quarter-bound books of these classic texts as translated by Emily Wilson.

With this work he continues a long-standing partnership with the Folio Society, gaining a certain synonymity and prominence on the bookshelves of many.

With the limited double edition now sold out, and The Folio Society about to launch the standard single editions (The Iliad in March, and The Odyssey in August), Celf Gallery is hosting an exhibition of the original artwork of these foundational epics, opening on 28 February.

Using his approach of painting in gouache and overlaying with pencil, Clive rested on the use of this limited opaline palette of golds and blues imposed on a jet black surface.

The effect is stunning and the result of an arduous creative process that starts with a studied reading of the texts and a long cast-list of potential characters and narrative scenes.

Flat maquettes with moving parts were then produced, a tool, not so far removed from Clive’s puppetry and choreography background, in order to arrange compositions within the negative space, photographing them and drawing as he goes.

Hicks-Jenkins shared: “I like to put myself in the spaces between the sentences, and to inhabit the places the writer has left unexplored.

“I play every role, in my head. I make vast numbers of sketches, mostly rough and ready, freely improvising on themes. My project books are comprehensive”

The marriage of Clive’s illustrative style to the mythic Hellenic world of Homer is a curiously fitting match. Indeed there’s something of Clive’s work which feels antediluvian, as having roots deep down in the mantel of the visual language of drama, myth, and the fantastical, befitting for the gods and monsters of these works whose place is at the very centre of western art and literature.

There will be approximately 30 works in the exhibition including original double page illustrations, studies and maquettes.

Myfanwy from Celf gallery told Nation Cymru: “It’s a privilege to be exhibiting these stunning original illustrations and we are thrilled that Clive has also completed several new works specifically for the exhibition.

“A copy of the now sold-out double edition will be on display for people to view for those that missed out on the limited edition run by the Folio Society.

“It’s another chance to see the wonderful work of one of Wales’s leading artists and will demonstrate the commitment and extensive work that goes into collaborations between artists and publishers.

“This is Clive’s first solo exhibition at Celf Gallery and it promises to be quite the spectacle. Another one of our exhibitions not to be missed.”

Clive Hicks-Jenkins, Iliad / Odyssey: Artworks for the Folio Society Homer takes place at Celf Gallery, Bangor Street, Cardiff from 28 February – 22 March, 2026.