Ten Good Years

29th May - 11th October 2026

The Heong Gallery, Cambridge

Ten Good Years celebrates The Heong Gallery’s 10th anniversary by paying homage to its inaugural exhibition, Generation Painting 1955–65: British Art from the Collection of Sir Alan Bowness.

Ten Good Years is an exhibition about connections through time. It reveals the way in which themes, places and sympathies evident in Bowness’s collection extend across generations, by exhibiting a selection of contemporary artists which specifically resonate with this mid-century work and have connections to Cornwall. The exhibition’s name derives from the title of Bowness’s essay in the Generation Painting catalogue, in which he reflects on the “notion of a decade as a marker of a generation”.

Ten Good Years features work by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Simon Bayliss, Alan Davie, Pam Evelyn, Terry Frost, Christopher P. Green, Patrick Heron, Realf Heygate, Lubaina Himid, Peter Lanyon, Janet Leach, Siobhan McLaughlin, Richard Smith, Lucy Stein, Mark Tobey, Jonathan Micheal Ray, Ro Robertson, and Veronica Ryan.

In conjunction with the exhibition, other work from Bowness’s collection will be shown at Cambridge’s other major galleries: William Scott at Kettle’s Yard and Roger Hilton at The Fitzwilliam Museum.

The exhibition is curated by Joe Lyward. Photography: Jo Underhill.

My painting in this exhibition, Long Shore Drift (Rackwick Bay to Loe Bar), connects landscapes from Orkney to SW Cornwall, using earth pigments gathered while walking, painted onto sewn materials that include a section of Barbara Hepworth’s studio curtains, material from Tate St Ives and windsurf sail from artist Antony Frost.

The Ten Good Years exhibition catalogue, featuring essays by Joe Lyward, Rachel Rose Smith and Ro Robertson, can be purchased here

https://www.dow.cam.ac.uk/creative-arts/heong-gallery/ten-good-years