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Artist: Paul Jenkins

Ronchini presents the first ever recreation of As Above so Below, a solo exhibition of works by Paul Jenkins (1923–2012), originally held at the historic 12th-century Cistercian abbey, Abbaye de Silvacane, in the South of France in 2005.

The exhibition was held in conjunction with Atelier Cézanne, Aix-en-Provence, which displayed the final painting in the series for the duration of the exhibition. This pairing created a dialogue across generations, linking Jenkins’s fluid abstraction with Cézanne’s exploration of form and light. Grounded in the Provençal landscape, it defines both the context of Cézanne’s practice and the site of Jenkins’s original installation. The works in As Above so Below were created to be uniquely site-specific and contemplative, in Jenkins’s signature abstract style in response to the unique architecture and rich history of the abbey. Presenting them in a gallery context invites a renewed dialogue between painting and space, allowing the works to be experienced both independently and in relation to one another, while echoing the meditative rhythm of their original installation.

Throughout his remarkable oeuvre, Paul Jenkins developed a distinctive approach to painting that emphasised process and materiality. Best known for his Phenomena series, Jenkins poured and guided fluid paint across the canvas, using an ivory knife to direct its movement, creating luminous, layered compositions that explore light, colour, and transparency. Influenced by Eastern philosophy, Jungian psychology, and his associations with Abstract Expressionism, Jenkins’s practice sought to balance control and fluidity, resulting in works that are at once dynamic and reflective.

Highlights of the exhibition include Phenomena Beckon to Trance, a composition dominated by soft gradients and translucent layers of blue, white, and deep shadow. With its rich surface texture and delicate veining, the composition is structured through subtle gradations of tone and density. Across the body of work, Jenkins returns to a restrained yet evocative palette of blues, whites, and deep black, allowing tonal variation and translucency to take precedence over overt colour. This shifting, controlled range of colour reinforces the contemplative, elemental quality that unites the works.

The works reflect a late period in the artist’s career, highlighting his remarkable clarity and control within his practice. Executed just seven years before his death, they embody a distilled and contemplative approach to painting, where gesture, colour, and space are reduced to their most essential and resonant forms.

This presentation offers a renewed opportunity to consider Jenkins’s engagement with space, light, and process at a pivotal moment in his career. Recontextualised within the gallery, the works emphasise fluidity and transition, shaped by the movement of pigment and the interplay of colour and light. This will be the artist’s third solo exhibition with Ronchini, and the first at its new Conduit Street space.

all images © the gallery and the artist(s)