Stephen and Lorna Kirin first met in 1986 at North East London Polytechnic, whilst studying Sculpture and Painting as part of their Fine Art Degrees. At that time, their lives went different ways, but by 2016 they found themselves going in the same direction and they have been together ever since. They continue to create individually, but from 2016 have also been working collaboratively. (See the links below to discover more about their individual work.)
Over the years their collaborative work has evolved into a very natural expression of how two artists respond to the world. Subject matter is often steeped in classical sculpture and painting and the questions these raise for the contemporary art loving public. As artists working as a lens filtering contemporary culture and life, this decade so far has not been one of peace, naturally this has influenced their recent subject matter. Both ‘Hope’ and the triptych series of ‘The Furies’ refer to the current conflict in Ukraine and ‘The Fury of Athamos’ and ‘Laocoönic Caryatid’ further explore the struggles we find ourselves in. ‘Constanza Too’ is an example of an early depiction of domestic violence and the painting is specifically titled to namecheck her into the contemporary ‘Me Too’ movement, while ‘Fanny Eaton’ and ‘Tohotaua with a Fan’ reconfigure representations of the female as Artistic muse by asserting their identity beyond the Pre-Raphaelites’ Romanticism and conquests in Gauguin’s search for a primitive Eden.
Bury St Edmunds, their hometown, has just marked a 1000 year history as a religious pilgrimage destination, with it’s very name associated with St Edmund and the legends and symbolism that suffuses the town. The 600 year old carved Angels in St Mary’s Church remain an inspiration too. They first enthralled Stephen and Lorna as symbols of permanence at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic; their benevolent presences have been gazing down on the world for centuries, bearing witness to plague, war, famine and of course celebratory times too. They are enduring, just as we seek to be. Stephen and Lorna have purposely set them adjacent to new pieces that reference today’s turbulence. The image of King Edmund and the wolf, for example, a victim of a violent murder, sits alongside this narrative.
Their art seeks peace and inner strength within the human condition and how we persist within it.
The Kirins 