Bob Jenyns is a prolific Australian artist whose practice, spanning over four decades, has produced countless sculptures, prints, drawings, and paintings. He has participated in many of Australia's most significant art exhibitions including the first Biennale of Sydney

Biennale of Sydney

The Biennale of Sydney is an international festival of contemporary art, held every two years in Sydney, Australia. It is the largest and best-attended contemporary visual arts event in the country...

 (1973), the 1973, 1975 and 1978 Mildura Sculpture Triennials, the 1981 Australian Perspecta, the 2nd Australian Sculpture Biennale, and the 1990 Sculpture Triennial. Jenyns was a finalist in the 2006 Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award

Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award

The Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award at Werribee Park was Australia's most financially rewarding prize for sculpture, instituted in 2000, and providing a total of A$145,000 in prizes to award recipients each year. The last award was made in 2008...

, and in 2007 won the award with his work Pont de l'archeveche. He is represented in many of the country's largest collections, including the National Gallery of Australia

National Gallery of Australia

The National Gallery of Australia is the national art gallery of Australia, holding more than 120,000 works of art. It was established in 1967 by the Australian government as a national public art gallery.- Establishment :...

, the Art Gallery of New South Wales

Art Gallery of New South Wales

The Art Gallery of New South Wales , located in The Domain in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, was established in 1897 and is the most important public gallery in Sydney and the fourth largest in Australia...

, the Queensland Art Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Brisbane, and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is a museum located in Hobart, Tasmania. The museum was established in 1843, by the Royal Society of Tasmania under the leadership of Sir John Franklin, the oldest Royal Society outside of England.-Governance:...

. Jenyns has also received multiple grants from the Australia Council's Visual Arts Board, has curated exhibitions and has taught at the Tasmanian School of Art as head of the sculpture department (1982–2005).

Bob Jenyns is married to ceramic artist Lorraine Jenyns. Both live and work in Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

, Australia.

Style

Jenyns' work is distinctive in style, which has remained relatively consistent throughout his lengthy artistic career. His art is identifiable by his persistent use of figuration, his use of a naive or Outsider Aesthetic, distinct sense of humour, a handcrafted aesthetic, the tableaux or narrative as artistic strategies, the celebration of the everyday and the frequent reference to political, cultural and social events as well as personal experience.

A Naive Aesthetic

Of the few critics that have written on Jenyns, most refer to the 'naive' or Outsider Aesthetic evident in his work. James Gleeson in 1973, for instance, labelled Jenyns as 'pop-naive'; and Bernice Murphy believes that Jenyns' approach to form 'is allied to tribal art or direct vernacular forms in popular culture, rather than to the formal tradition of Western sculpture.' Graeme Sturgeon believes that this aesthetic 'suggests that Jenyns is a naive artist viewing everything with an apparently wide-eyed innocence.' However, all agree that this exterior is deceptive, with Sturgeon adding that 'one suspects, that behind the apparently ingenuous exterior… there lies another, more profound reality, which will be well worth discovering.' Under Jenyns' profile in Australian Sculptors, Ken Scarlett acknowledges that

His work certainly has the appearance of naivety, but it also contains a sophisticated wit … Is the sculptor really naive? Is he pulling the spectator's leg? Is he making fun of art and the whole gallery scene?

Jenyns' enthusiastic embrace of the Outsider Aesthetic appears to stem from a number of different experiences and sources. Firstly, his childhood experience of making toys out of salvaged materials has subsequently affected his treatment of materials and form later in his professional artistic career. Secondly, Jenyns has long held an interest in Folk, Naive and outsider art

Outsider Art

The term outsider art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut , a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture; Dubuffet focused particularly on art by insane-asylum inmates.While...

, which has also clearly influenced his style. Lastly, his use of the Outsider Aesthetic serves as a strategy in order to express his disapproval of certain aspects of the art establishment. For Jenyns, the Outsider Aesthetic is symbolic of individual expression, and is a way of challenging dictated notions of taste and high art.

Humour

In Jenyns' art, humour exists in a number of different forms. His titles often include puns (such as Putting Money Where Your Mouse Is (1967)), and his subjects are parodied (for example Humble Hero (c. 1984)), although generally in a good-humoured manner. His clever observations of social, political and cultural structures, and celebration of everyday objects and events, are humorously captured in his work, and the many works which celebrate these easily forgotten moments of life are amusing simply due to their banality (Dog (1993)). Satire is mostly used by Jenyns in a subtle manner, emerging in quietly subversive works that hide behind a naive exterior; however, occasionally Jenyns produces blatantly critical works which use ironic humour to air political or cultural disapproval (Meanwhile... Down South In Tasmania (2005)). Additionally, his novel use of materials and techniques to produce works of art regularly undermine traditional notions of high and low art.

Representation

Bob Jenyns is represented by Watters Gallery http://www.wattersgallery.com/artists/rjenyns.htm in Sydney. He is represented in Hobart by Colville Street Gallery http://www.colvillestreetartgallery.com.au/gallery/bobjenyns.php.

Collections

Jenyns has artwork held in the following collections:

• National Gallery of Australia
  National Gallery of Australia
  The National Gallery of Australia is the national art gallery of Australia, holding more than 120,000 works of art. It was established in 1967 by the Australian government as a national public art gallery.- Establishment :...
  
   , Canberra
• Art Gallery of New South Wales
  Art Gallery of New South Wales
  The Art Gallery of New South Wales , located in The Domain in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, was established in 1897 and is the most important public gallery in Sydney and the fourth largest in Australia...
  
  
• Queensland Art Gallery
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Brisbane
• Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery
• Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, Launceston
• Visual Arts Board Collection
• Alice Springs Art Foundation
• Kelvin Grove Teacher's College, Brisbane
• Geelong Art Gallery
• University of Tasmania
• Deakin University , Geelong
• Family Court Collection, Canberra
• New England Regional Art Museum
• ICI Collection, Melbourne