Oct. 8, 2025 to Oct. 11, 2025
Jack Penny: Elveden Hall, Suffolk
EXHIBITION DATES: 8-11th OCTOBER 2025.
This August, Jack Penny is developing Old Country - a new body of work created during a summer-long residency at Elveden Hall. The exhibition will respond to the complex atmosphere of Elveden - a place shaped by empire, reinvention, and inherited tradition.
Penny’s practice is driven by a fascination with tribal instinct. He sees human behaviour as governed by primal urges - status, territory, belonging - masked by civility. His paintings are alive with tension, humour, and coded rebellion. Figures wrestle, withdraw, misstep, and defy; they seem both part of and apart from the systems they inhabit.
There’s mischief in every mark. Penny’s work refuses solemnity, leaning instead into irony and provocation. His paintings hold a mirror to the absurdities of social performance, where jokes and power plays blur.
Old Country will be both homage and disruption - an exploration of what it means to belong in spaces heavy with history. Drawing on British mythology and national memory, Penny’s paintings ask: Who claims tradition, and who is left out? What rituals endure, and what gets rewritten?
When Old Country opens this October, visitors will step inside Elveden Hall to encounter a body of work that both honours and disrupts the estate’s history - drawing on British mythology and national memory to question who gets to claim tradition, and how those traditions evolve.
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MORE ABOUT THIS LOCATION
ELVEDEN HALL
With its soaring four-storey height, copper-domed roof, and intricately detailed panelling and ceilings, Elveden's Marble Hall promises a memorable experience to all who visit.
Elveden Hall
Elveden has served as a canvas for two notable owners: Maharajah Duleep Singh - the last Maharajah of the Sikh Empire, and the Guinness family.
After the British East India Company annexed his kingdom, Maharajah Duleep Singh sought refuge and a new life in England. It was in 1863 that the Maharajah purchased Elveden Estate, envisioning it as a sanctuary with interiors reminiscient of the grandeur of Mughal palaces. The mansion is Italian in deisgn, faced with red brick and Ancaster stone dressings, and was expanded under the guidance of architect John Norton, who enveloped the original building within a grand 13-bay west wing for the Maharajah.
The interiors were also adorned with intricate designs inspired by the Maharajah’s native Punjab, and the ceiling and wall-pannelling have been executed with the most intricate of details. The unquestionable centrepiece of the house is its Marble Hall: a four storey room echoing the grandeur of the Court of Lahore, created by the Maharajah as a marriage gift for his wife, Bamba Muller. Unlike the plaster decorations of Queen Victoria’s Indian room at Osborne House, Elveden’s hall boasts authentic Carrara marble, crafted by 700 artisans, rendering it a masterpiece of 19th-century craftsmanship. The cantilevered staircase alone cost £30,000, a testament to the Maharajah’s dedication to recreating the majesty of his homeland and to his marital commitment.
During his ownership, Elveden became a hub of aristocratic leisure, especially shooting. Notable guests, including Queen Victoria and Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, frequented the estate. However, the Maharajah’s tenure was marred by financial difficulties and political challenges, leading to his departure in 1886.
In 1894, Edward Cecil Guinness, the 1st Earl of Iveagh, acquired Elveden Estate, seamlessly continuing its sporting traditions and placing emphasis on agricultural management. A philanthropist and successful businessman, he cultivated the estate’s farmland, pioneering a four-course rotation system that supported game birds and shooting. By the early 20th century, the estate expanded to encompass 7,000 acres.
The 2nd Earl of Iveagh, Rupert Guinness, further advanced the estate’s agricultural legacy in the 1920s, solidifying its reputation as a model of rural and sporting excellence. Having also contributed to the local community by building a model village using bricks from their estate brickworks, the Guinness family's impact is still seen - and felt - today. Though Elveden Hall may no longer serve as a residence, the estate thrives today as a beacon of world-class food production and wildlife conservation. Balancing sustainable farming practices with a deep respect for its natural environment, Elveden has carved a niche as a forward-thinking estate that has successfully adapted to modern demands.