Penzance to Host Centenary Exhibition for St Ives Artist Ken Turner

When a 98-year-old man climbed into a 15-tonne tank last year and flattened a Tesla on camera, the internet decided he was either a hero or completely lost the plot. Ken Turner, who lives just outside St Ives, was simply doing what he has done for the better part of a century. This July he turns 100, and Cornwall is hosting a three-part celebration of his work.

📷Ken Turner, My Ride Over a Tesla Car, 2025 (4x4 acrylic on canvas)© Ken Turner

A century of “crashing culture”

Ken Turner was born in 1926. He served as a “Bevin Boy” in the coal mines during the Second World War, then spent the following eight decades moving through modernism, environmental art, performance and abstract painting. He co-founded the radical 1960s collective Action Space in 1968 with the artist Mary Turner, touring giant inflatable structures and “instant cities” around the UK and Europe for ten years.

He set up an Environmental Design course at Barnet College in 1961, taught at the Architectural Association, and ran foundation courses at Central Saint Martins from 1960 until 1990. His books include Crashing Culture (2016) and A Life Being Ken Turner (2020). His work is held in the Arts Council Collection.

Ken moved to St Ives in the 1990s and has lived and worked in west Cornwall ever since.

Then in 2025, organised with the political campaign group Led By Donkeys, came the tank. The video of Ken driving over a Tesla travelled the world. According to the exhibition organisers, the stunt was a statement on the rise of fascism and the need to resist it with determination and humour.

📷Still from Expiry, 2026 (dir. Huw Wahl)

The exhibition: Penzance, late July

Ken Turner at 100: A Century of Crashing Culture runs from 23rd July to 4th August 2026 at the Wharfside Arts Hub in Penzance. Entry is free, open Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 7pm.

The exhibition pulls together painting, performance video archive, and film footage from the Action Space years. Among the new paintings is My Ride Over a Tesla Car, made in response to the 2025 stunt. Huw Wahl’s 16mm film My Ride Over a Tesla (2026), documenting both the event and the painting that followed, will play on loop.

The opening event is on Saturday 25th July from 7pm, featuring a private view, an art auction, and a live performance by Ken himself.

Also on display is Ken’s current Weeping World series, which uses gypsum and acrylic to build a tactile surface. In his own words: “My work attempts to create potent and positive images that bypass the notion of being purely political… I am deeply concerned about the ‘touchiness’ in paint, revealing hidden but positive meanings through innovative aesthetics and techniques.”

📷Still from Expiry, 2026 (dir. Huw Wahl)(1)

A chance to visit the studio

For the duration of the exhibition, Ken’s working studio at Anjou Barn, Trevalgan, just outside St Ives, will be open to the public on a free drop-in basis. Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 4pm. The studio holds work spanning his full career, from early sketches through to current paintings.

Film premiere at Newlyn Filmhouse

The world premiere of Expiry, a new 2026 film made by Ken with his son, the filmmaker Huw Wahl, takes place at Newlyn Filmhouse during the exhibition run. Shot entirely on expired 16mm film stock, the press materials describe it as “a love letter to aging playfully,” asking what creative action looks like at the edge of a century.

Huw’s previous film Wind, Tide & Oar, about engineless sailing, is currently streaming in the UK and Ireland through Tull Stories. He is a Visiting Research Associate at the University of Manchester’s School of Arts, Languages and Cultures.

Ken Turner can be found on Instagram.

📷Ken Turner, The Killing of Children in Gaza, 2025 (gypsum and acrylic on canvas 4x4) © Ken Turner

📷Ken Turner, Weeping World, 2026 (gypsum and acrylic on canvas) © Ken Turner

📷Still from Expiry, 2026 (dir. Huw Wahl)

📷Still from Expiry, 2026 (dir. Huw Wahl)

📷Still from My Ride Over a Tesla, 2026 (dir. Huw Wahl)

📷Still from My Ride Over a Tesla, 2026 (dir. Huw Wahl)

📷Ken Turner, Weeping Series, 2026 (5x5 acrylic on canvas) © Ken Turner

📷Still from My Ride Over a Tesla, 2026 (dir. Huw Wahl)

📷Ken Turner, A Result of Overconsumption, 2026 (5x5 acrylic on canvas) © Ken Turner

📷Ken Turner, Dog Running from a Flaming City, 2024 (4x4 - acrylic on canvas) © Ken Turner

📷Ken Turner, Humanscape and Planet Earth with a Problem of Climate Change, 2024 (4x4) © Ken Turner