For two weeks, Messum's is pleased to exclusively present 15 new paintings by Geoffrey Key, which will be available to view at our 28 Cork Street gallery from Monday, 26 October to Friday, 6 November.

Key's work has never been more sought after by collectors, with consistently high auction prices achieved in local salerooms.

This show includes a cross section of works with figure studies, still lives and landscapes, all of which are offered framed and priced between £7,850 and £10,850.

Key’s signature style might evoke echoes of cubism and perhaps even the roguish energy of animated cartoons, but it is entirely his own product, a combination of his fascination with sculpture, vernacular forms and the sights and people of his native Salford. Year on year, his work continues to grow in popularity, and as his subject matter embraces both the region’s industrial past and its burgeoning cosmopolitan atmosphere, his work is now arguably influencing the face of northern contemporary art itself. Northern collectors have long prized his work, but Key’s oils are now to be found in international collections from Geneva to Beijing and have recently set record auction prices for northern painting.

Key studied at Manchester’s High School of Art, followed by Manchester Regional College of Art, where he trained with Harry Rutherford. Since the early 1970s, he has mounted major exhibitions in France, Hong Kong, the USA and Australia and is represented in important public and corporate collections, including the Salford and Manchester Art Galleries, the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong, Jockey Club of Hong Kong, Societé Roquefort, Château de St Ouen, and Perrier.