'In-Transit': Jonathan Hynd's artistic commentary on a world at war

  ROME – British painter and long-time resident in the Eternal City Jonathan Hynd’s new exhibition, “In-Transit”, exploring war the nature of being an artist during times of conflict opens Oct. 20 in Rome.

  Hynd, who grew up in Manchester and studied at the Architectural Association, has participated in over 100 shows internationally and has developed a reputation as a fiercely independent abstract artist with a worldly perspective.

  Hynd moved to Rome nearly 40 years ago and has since interacted with the socio-cultural fabric of the Eternal City. In 2015 Hynd became the first British artist to receive an Honoris Causa at University Roma Tre. In 2021, he won First Prize VII edition of the Franco Cuomo International Prize for the Arts in Palazzo Giustiniano at the Senate House in Rome.

  Known for his abstract paintings on cardboard, Hynd positions himself as an urban archaeologist by using a range of chemicals, pigments and tools which disrupts conventional hierarchies of mark-making and instead allows the works’ layered history to emerge through acts of both dissolution and exposure.

  His 2025 studio exhibition “In-Transit” examines the material processes of construction and deconstruction, through which the artist navigates themes of personal and collective excavation in search of universal truth. The  deliberately fragmented visuals reflect a multitude of pathways towards outcome and discovery.

  “In-Transit” presents an unmediated juxtaposition of past and present, subverting Fascist logic, that seeks to segregate the old from the new. While each painting features its unique iconography, their elements unite to create a charged, visual lexicon that engages with human vulnerability and aggression. 

  The exhibition consciously reacts to contemporary, politically volatile environments, activating the subversive, yet diplomatic role of artists to both facilitate and reflect discourse. Through the metaphor of cardboard and the aftermath of violence, “In-Transit” challenges viewers to intimately confront the uneasy ruins of civilization, cyclical patterns, and to deeply consider our ability to remain complicit in the ongoing dissolution of ethical and environmental structures. Fragile, yet ubiquitous, the future remains ours to direct.

 khg