News & Events
Airing
Airing, Curated by Alison Aye I’ve been collaborating for two years with Ken Turner the founder of Tension an artist run gallery space in South London. When Ken asked me to curate a show (he was moving house and lacked time), I wanted to select artists who use thread,...
Tension Graduate Prize 2025
Tension Graduate Prize 2025 This year, Central St Martins invited entries from all four MA Fine Art departments. From a shortlist of 45 artists, Tension Director Ken Turner and Art Monthly’s Matt Hale selected the winner: Amanda Moraes (MA Fine Art). Tension has...
London’s best contemporary art show is in Penge
London's best contemporary art show is in Penge Plus: seductive Argentinian conceptualists, the disorienting comedy of Okiki Akinfe and why you should visit Darlington in September DIGBY WARDE-ALDAM If you've been reading the more excitable pages of the arts press...
Mark Wallinger showing at Tension 2025
Mark Wallinger showing at Tension 5 April - 31 May 2025 Tension is honoured to present Gravity is the Weakest Force in the Universe, a solo exhibition by Mark Wallinger. Wallinger is one of the UK’s leading contemporary artists. Having previously been nominated for...
Tension Graduate Prize 2024
Left to Right: Tranasha Hyman, Laura Madeley, Ken Turner, Matt Hale : Tension Graduate Prize 2024. Photo Courtesy of Belinda Lawley, www.belindalawley.com Tension Graduate Prize 2024 Matt Hale and I spent an enjoyable afternoon...
Frippery, Sharon Paulger
Frippery - Sharon Paulger, July 2023 at Tension On each side of the gallery, small prints, square and identical in size, are methodically arranged in a grid pattern. Each print appears both as a stand-alone as well as part of a single work wrapped around the walls of...
Paul Carey-Kent’s Gallery Of The Week
Still from William Cobbing: ‘screensaver’, 2022/23 – video, looped Article by Paul Carey-Kent First appeared in Fad Magazine 6 September 2023 Tension Fine Art has operated since 2019 in the somewhat unlikely locality of Penge in South-East London. There may not be...
Crossings : Divides Review
Crossings : Divides Jenny Timmer 6th – 15th July 2023 Essay by Carrie Grainger Sitting in a quirky exhibition space in South London, artist Jenny Timmer’s work unearths playful, primitive and ominous glimpses from her own experiences in remote parts of Africa...
John Bunker ebook Launch
We are proud to announce the publication of John Bunker's ebook. Published to co-inside with the current show by the same name running at Tension Fine Art, 'our dust is blowing along the road' is the first published monograph on artist John Bunker. Featuring essays by...
Tension Graduate Show 2022
Tension Graduate Prize 2022 The Tension Graduate Prize has been awarded since 2019 to emerging artists selected from a shortlist of M.A. students graduating at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. The selectors for 2022 were artist and director of...
Ken Turner & John Bunker in Conversation
Soliloquy Ken Turner 11th June - 16th July 2022 Artist and writer John Bunker in converstion with Ken Turner at Tension 9th July 2022 First impressions on entering the gallery are of a body of work teetering on the edge of chaos. I am instantly reminded of the...
Landscape Of The Future: Raf Klein Print launch
Landscape of the Future – ‘Don’t Look Away’, a new suite of prints Artist Raf Klein’s work explores the ways our own personal narratives shape the world we inhabit. Whether an idyllic, imagined arcadia of pure perfect nature, or the fantasy worlds of Coney Island and...
Staging Time: Review by Jamie Genovese published on Artlyst.com
Staging Time Suzanne Moxhay and Jenny Klein have taken the stage at Tension Fine Art gallery with a series of works that share a progenitor: the photograph. Different as they may be in vernacular and tone, the works from Moxhay and Klein are alike in that they take...
Shape Chroma: Review by Sue Hubbard published on Artlyst.com
Shape Chroma: Tension Fine Art London: Newton and Goethe famously disagreed on the genesis of colour. Most commentary assumes Goethe was wrong. But this is true only if you accept that colour can simply be described by physics and that psychological and conceptual...
Detritus – A Day Of Performance At Tension 23rd Oct 2021
Detritus Detritus: what has been worn away. Join us at Tension Fine Art for a day of cascading performances. A mixture of experimental, finished and unfinished works in durational, interactive, momentary, and material-based Live Art. The performances will begin and...
Three Central Saint Martins Graduate Exhibitions Coming To Tension
We are pleased to announce that Central Saint Martins have awarded three groups of graduates from MA Contemporay Photography; Practices and Philosophies funding for three group exhibitions to be held at Tension over the coming months. The first two will be held during...
Lures Re-Opening
We are pleased to announce that we will be re-opening following the extended closure due to lockdown restrictions. You are warmly invited to join us to celebrate the re-opening of Lures with an open day on the 6th May 2021 from 11am till 8pm. Entrance restrictions may...
Tension Update 2020-21
2020 Has been a tough year. 2020 has been a particularly tough and strange year for everyone, to say the least. Back in March after consulting with the artists John Atherton, James Low and Fernando M. Romero participants of the group show LURES which opened on the...
Natasha Turner
Natasha Turner With great sadness I announce the passing of my daughter Natasha Turner. Natasha was 29 years old and fought a brave and difficult battle with Breast cancer over the past 16 months. Natasha was responsible for our administration and website management,...
Coronavirus closure @ Tension
18/03/2020: Due to the ongoing situation with coronavirus, the decision has been taken to close Tension Fine Art for the foreseeable future. Events planned may be rescheduled but please check back for further details. During this time viewing by appointment may be...
We are an artist run gallery dedicated to showcasing the work and raising the profiles of emerging and mid career local, national and international artists. We show a mixture of contemporary & experimental art that questions what art is and what art could be.
135 Maple Road
London
SE20 8LP
OPENING TIMES
Friday - Saturday
11am - 5pm
or
by appointment