Current Members

Glyn Jones was born in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales, and studied painting at Cardiff College of Art and at the Slade School of Fine Art, London. He returned to Wales in 1972 as Head of the School of Fine Art at Cardiff. He has had solo exhibitions in Cardiff, London and New York, having his work included in private and public collections including the National Gallery and Museum Cardiff, and the National Gallery of Slovakia. In 1994 the University awarded him the title of Professor. He was elected Chair of the 56 Group Wales 2003-06. He retired from the University in 2001 and lives and paints in Taff’s Well near Cardiff.

Jackson lives in Cardiff and works at the Butetown Artists Studios. She has travelled and worked in Europe, Australia, America and the Middle East and has exhibited in Europe, America and Russia. She has undertaken various commissions and residencies such as the Sight Garden, Stackpole, Dyfed, the Copper Mill Millennium Sculpture in Greenfield Valley, Flint, a Leighton Studios Fellowship at Banff, Canada and a US/UK Cast Iron Residency at Berllanderi Sculpture Workshops, Wales. She has work in the collections of the National Museum and Gallery of Wales, The National Library of Wales, New Hall Collection,  Edward, Murray College, Cambridge, South Wales University, Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre, Franconia Sculpture Park, MN USA, Salem Art Works Sculpture Park, NY, USA and numerous private collections.

Sue Hunt is known as a painter and printmaker, and has exhibited her work widely both in the UK and abroad.
Her interest in drawing combined with a strong abstract identity in terms of composition, form the basis of her work. Subject matter is revealed by a real connection with the materials themselves, the paint, the ink or drawing materials, this and an interest in the quiet energy of botanical forms or still life motifs has underpinned her work of late.
Over the last two years her work has been shown in Hangzhou in China and Australia as part of the international touring exhibition of Open Books, an exhibition of traditional folding books, originating at the National Library of Wales.
Sue has also been collaborating with the charity ‘Mothers for Africa’ where she has been working on community based public art and health projects in Zambia, both in a hospital and rural village environment.
Sue teaches part-time in Cardiff School of Art and Design where she is a .5 Senior Lecturer.
Recent research includes an exploration of silverpoint drawing and being given access to examine the silverpoint renaissance drawings held in the Queens collection at Windsor Castle.

Born in Staffordshire in 1946. Studied at the Royal College of Art, London. Head of Sculpture at University of Wales Cardiff until 2000. Ran Berllanderi Sculpture Workshop in Raglan for 30 years. He was a founder member of The Welsh Sculpture Trust and Council Member of Royal Society of British Sculptors and RSA Art for Architecture Committee and several other advisory groups. Lectured in Europe, North America and India and attended many International Symposiums and Residencies. He has made several Public commissions including Archform at Newport Railway Station and the Celtic Ring in Cardiff Bay. He is a fellow of the RBS and has been a member of the ‘56 Group since 1975.

Sue Hiley Harris was born and brought up in suburban Australia. She studied fine art at the Queensland College of Art and later, after her move to the Untied Kingdom, hand loom weaving in Bradford. The Black Mountains and the Brecon Beacons on the eastern border of Wales have been her chosen home for over thirty years. She has exhibited and undertaken commissions both internationally and in the UK.

Carol Hiles’ work is focused on painting and drawing. She exhibits regularly and is a member of Butetown Artists, based at Bay Art In Cardiff. Carol has substantial experience as an artist working in the field of arts and health and was engaged as Artist in Residence for Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust for eleven years, a post which was followed by a residency at the Royal Gwent Hospital in LLantrisant. She has also pursued a successful career in Higher Education and is currently a Senior Lecturer in Art and Postgraduate Coordinator for the Faculty of Creative Industries at the University of South Wales.

Robert Harding was born in Southport, Lancashire and lives and works in Llantrisant.  He won the Sculpture Prize at the 2005 and 2007 Welsh Artist of the Year events and was awarded the first Wakelin Purchase Award at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea in 2000.  He has exhibited internationally since 1981, the most recent being an exhibition of Welsh Art in two galleries in Dusseldorf in 2015 and he was also Artist in Residence at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, USA in 1994.  He has undertaken a number of commissions for public and private sites and the occasional presentation piece such as the Madog Award given at the Hay on Wye Literature Festival (2003).  He has organized and curated seven exhibitions to date, the most recent being Meltdown (2009), Mission Galley, Swansea, and has written widely on sculpture for various magazines – eg ‘The Heat is Rising’, CCQ, Issue 7, 2015.  Having done some preliminary research for the Henry Moore Foundation on the 1950-1952 experiments Moore conducted in DIY bronze casting, he is currently expanding this to cover that whole post-war generation of sculptors who conducted similar experiments.  Robert Harding is a long-time member of the Welsh Group and the 56 Group Wales and is a part-time lecturer in sculpture at the Carmarthen School of the Arts.

Born in Staffordshire, Dennis Gardiner studied at Staffordshire University and the Royal College of Art. He has exhibited both nationally and internationally and has work in private and public collections including, the Department of the Environment, Leicester LEA, the Government Art Collection, Imperial College London, St Thomas’s Hospital London, Fife Regional Council and South Glamorgan.

Born in Glynneath in 1944, Ken Elias studied at Cardiff College of Art from 1965 to 1966 and at Newport College of Art and Design from 1966 to 1969, where he gained a BA Hons in Fine Art. Returning to Cardiff in the Eighties he gained his MA in Fine Art.
Influenced by his childhood association with a local cinema, and the use of memory and imagination, he has exhibited paintings,photomontage works, prints, and mixed media works across the UK, Europe, and the USA. His work is represented in private collections and the principal galleries and museums of Wales. In 2009 Elias held a major Retrospective Exhibition at The National Library of Wales, that celebrated forty four years work as an artist and toured to three other venues in Wales. This exhibition coincided with the publication of ‘ Ken Elias:Thin Partitions’ a monograph edited by Ceri Thomas and published by Seren, it has a foreword by Professor Dai Smith, and essays by Hugh Adams, David Briers, Jon Gower, Anne Price-Owen and Ceri Thomas.