Versatile artist and teacher who after Airedale Secondary School attended Whitwood Mining & Technical College, full-time, 1965–6, then day-release, 1966–86. He was a mechanical fitter at Fryston Colliery, 1965–85; an archaeological illustrator on the Pontefract Castle dig, 1986–8; became a freelance artist in 1988; and from 1998 combined this with being exhibition organiser for Yorkshire Art Circus, where he also taught. From 1989, Malkin did a lot of teaching in various centres, including Knottingley Community Centre, 1989–93; Castleford Women’s Centre, 1989–94; Airedale Adult Learning Centre, 1991–8; Open College of the Arts, 1996–00; and Carlton High School, Pontefract, 1999–03. Malkin held a number of short-term residencies, later ones including National Coal Mining Museum for England/Shelley College, 2003–4.
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His steel figure The Grim Ripper stemmed from that residency, one of many public art pieces, including brick murals, by him. Other commissions included The Good Yorkshire Life mural for Yorkshire Arts Development, Dewsbury, 1991; School Mural, Halfpenny Lane, Pontefract, 1993; Sea Gulls painted mural, The Promenade Shopping Centre, Bridlington, 1996; and Fibreglass and resin panels for Friends of Castleford Library & Centre XI, 1999–00. Among Malkin’s illustrations were ones for Mandy’s Place, 2003, by Brian Lewis, who set up Yorkshire Art Circus in 1980, later ran Pontefract Press and who early promoted Malkin’s artistic career (“The first exhibition I got him was between the till and the toilets at an Italian restaurant in Pontefract (1987). The next was at the Royal Festival Hall (1988).”) Malkin began showing in 1985, in 1986 winning first prize in the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation National Art Competition. He became a prolific exhibitor, based in Ackworth, Yorkshire.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
