The Architecture Of Connection
Paintings by Jen Orpin
Design by Malcolm Garrett
Published by the modernist society
“A debut monograph from landscape painter Jen Orpin, exploring motorway bridges, underpasses and the quiet infrastructure of our journeys as metaphors for memory, loss and connection.
Following the loss of her father in 2015, Orpin spent three months travelling weekly between Manchester and Surrey. The roads, junctions and bridges she passed became landmarks of grief and reflection and over the years that followed, the subject of a body of work that has resonated far beyond her own story. With no human figures in the paintings, the work leaves space for viewers to project their own journeys, memories and losses onto these liminal, overlooked places.
Bringing together eight years of paintings exhibited widely, alongside new creative writing and reader responses, The Architecture Of Connection is published to coincide with the tenth anniversary of her father's passing and Orpin's solo show of the same name. Designed by celebrated graphic designer Malcolm Garret, this is a tender, beautifully crafted first book about the roads that carry us through transition, physical and emotional alike.” - the modernist Society
Pre Order now from the link below
Moving Stories – David Parr House
I have three works included in the fourth edition of House Guests at David Parr House.
Moving Stories is the fourth edition of House Guests at David Parr House, with works by contemporary artists, designers and makers taking up temporary residence at 186 Gwydir Street. Moving Stories explores journeys in all their forms - the paths people take, the places they leave, the destinations they seek and the traces they leave behind. The theme gathers around three questions: Where have we come from? Where are we going? What do we carry with us?
This year, the exhibition takes a new shape. Rather than opening all at once, the works will arrive one by one throughout October, each settling into the house in its own time. The exhibition will gradually change as new guests join, creating new conversations between contemporary work and David Parr’s original painted schemes.
Keep tuned here @davidparrhouse and on @bloombergconnects to follow the exhibition as each new work arrives.
The exhibition can be viewed during House Visits from 1 October to 9 January 2027.
Entry to the exhibition is included in a House Visit ticket.
The House is open Thursday–Saturday with ticketed entry.
The Gallery and Shop is open Wednesday–Saturday, 10am–5pm.
David Parr House is located at 184 and 186 Gwydir Street, Cambridge, CB1 2LW.
https://davidparrhouse.org/whats-on/moving-stories
The Architecture Of Connection
Solo Exhibition - Saul Hay Gallery
Sat 29th Nov - Sun 21st Dec 2025
Preview Saturday 29th Nov 2pm to 6pm
Saul Hay Gallery
Manchester
https://www.saulhayfineart.co.uk/jen-orpin
I’ll be in the gallery painting from Tuesday 16th Dec til the exhibition closes on Sunday 21st Dec.
10 years ago, on the 15th Dec 2015, after three months in ICU my dad peacefully passed away. For the three months he was in hospital I travelled back and forth every week from Manchester to Surrey to be with him and my family. I became so familiar with the route, each stretch of road, junction and bridge becoming a marker and landmark in my journey. The time spent in the car became a time for reflection, processing and remembering. Childhood memories flooded back and thoughts drifted to nostalgic moments passed.
In 2018 I started painting my motorway bridges, the landmarks that served me so well became the main focus of each painting, punctuating my route, marking the passing of time and telling me where I was up to on my journey three years previously.
Bridges are connectors, joining land and people. What developed over the course of the 7 years creating the work and has become a key role that has kept me painting them, is connection. The connection people make to the work, often by placing themselves in the paintings and seeing their own memories and journeys reflected back at them. Then the connection to me by them sharing their stories of love and losses with me, all marked by journeys made, significant landmarks and the passing of time.
This exhibition explores the connections we make to each other as well as to the landscape outside of the car window, not only what’s in front, but when we look left and right. This is portrayed by a series of ‘Edge Land’ paintings capturing the topography that often goes unnoticed as our eyes are locked straight ahead.
The exhibition invites an intimacy with the viewer through the scale of the works and alongside them, for the first time, are some of the personal emails and messages people have sent me, included with their permission.
Royal Academy Summer Show
London
17th June - 17th august
Rolling, Action…Paint!
Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium
Norway
3.5 – 21.9.25
I will be showing 3 paintings in this group show alongside a film made by Grace, Long Yung Yu called ‘Motorway My Memory’
“Painting meets film in the main exhibition of the 2025 programme of Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Rolling, Action ... Paint! A number of artists will show paintings alongside a film, so that the two inform each other.
These combinations will operate in one of two ways. Around half will showcase films made by the painters. Viewers will be able to enjoy the paintings and films for their own separate qualities, while also getting a sense of how each informs the other.
The other half of the artists will present their paintings alongside films of the artist. Some of those films will be made by the artists themselves; some will be made by their work or life partners depicting their process; and some by filmmakers acknowledged in their own right. Those films will give an insight into the how and why of the paintings made by artists who aren’t themselves known as filmmakers.
The show as a whole will provide an unusual opportunity to compare the languages of film and painting, building on their mutual influence in the 20th century to enable similarities and contrasts to be identified in the contemporary approaches of an international roster of artists.
It is with great enthusiasm we present paintings and films by:”
Johnny Abrahams with Liang-Jung Chen, Darren Almond, Catherine Anholt, Tilo Baumgärtel, Xavier Baxter, Bek Hyunjin, Quilla Constance, Daniel Crews-Chubb, Kristian Evju, Peter Matthews, Galina Munroe, Ørnulf Opdahl, Jen Orpin with Grace, Long Yung Yu, Matthew Stone, Emma Talbot, Liorah Tchiprout, Markus Vater, Ivana de Vivanco, Rose Wylie with Ben Rivers
We Left Nothing Behind. Oil on canvas 100x50cm
Look On The Bright Side. Oil on cradled panel 15x30cm
Joined at The Slip. Oil on canvas 30x60cm
‘Journeys’
Taylor-Jones & Son
18th April - 16th May
I have 6 new pieces in a 3 person exhibition presented by Taylor-Jones & Son.
‘It’s a show that celebrates life on the road, something most of us experience on a daily basis. Journeys brings you 3 very different artists, Jen Orpin from Manchester, Alistair Gow from Glasgow and Nessie Ramm from East Sussex, who explore roads and what they mean to us in very different ways’
If you’d like an exhibition catalogue sending contact the gallery here info@taylorjonesandson.co.uk
Taylor-Jones & Son
114 High Street
Deal, Kent
CT14 6BB
