My paintings merge portraiture, still life and imagination, creating a self-contained subconscious world within a single painted plane. Dolls are a recurring motif, serving as explorations of self: a non-binary avatar shaped by my personality, tastes and memories. The dolls are a form of drag, their persona emerging through their transformation, allowing me to inhabit the painting as both artist and subject. Alongside the doll is Bianca, a life model based in Argentina who I met online. The paintings become a collaboration between artist and sitter. Working from a visual prompt informed by our shared aesthetic in Surrealism, Pre-Raphaelitism, classical art and mythology, Bianca undertakes the photoshoot in her Buenos Aires studio. The images are enlarged to life size and used to construct a diorama in my Manchester studio. The still life features an assortment of objects, from glimpses of artworks and collectable toys to curious flora, fauna and chintzy ornaments.
These act as lures to offer a distraction from an underlying cognitive rupture as I immerse myself in the world of the studio, my own past, and an idealised self-representation. The paintings provide a space in which I can retreat from the instability of everyday experience, constructing an alternative world from fragments of memory, desire, and imagination. Bianca adds a further layer of complexity. Although physically absent from the studio and rendered motionless, through taking an active creative part in the work, she retains agency unlike the other still life objects. Her presence therefore disrupts the self-contained world I construct, introducing another person, another body, and another consciousness into what is otherwise a deeply personal space.
Within the paintings there is a slippage, not only in the way paint resists the surface, but also between the subjects themselves. Heightened, saturated colour and meticulous rendering create a sense of unreality. Rooted in the studio, these myriad references coalesce into a space that is both physical and psychological, opening an ungendered liminal realm. My paintings entice the viewer into a world poised between the real and the uncanny, a space that is both tangible and illusory.
CV
Born, lives and works in Manchester, UK. Co-founder and director of the Fourdrinier, an online art periodical.
Education:
2022-25: Contemporary Art Academy
2017-20: Turps Banana Correspondence Course
2010-14: Graduate Teaching Assistantship with PhD, University of Salford
2008-10: Master of Fine Art, Liverpool John Moores University
1993-96: BA (Hons) Fine Art, Manchester Metropolitan University
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2024: The Omnipotence of Dream, Salford Museum & Art Gallery
2021: A Still Life, The Whitaker, Rossendale, UK
2019: A Still Life, The New School House Gallery, York
2015: Cosplay, Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge
2015: Cosplay, Howarth Art Centre, Livingston
2014: Cosplay, 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe
2013: Cosplay, Wolverhampton Art Gallery
2013: Cosplay, Touchstones, Rochdale
2011: Time to Pretend, Hub, Manchester
2010: Game, 20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe
2008: That’s Not My Name, The Agency, London
2007: How Can Someone so Young Sing Words So Sad, Transit, Mechelen, Belgium
2006: Who Will Eat my Sadness, The Agency, London
2005: The Beautiful People, The City Gallery, Leicester
2004: Jane Says…, Cooper Gallery, Barnsley
2003: The Beautiful People, Comme Ca Gallery, New York, USA
2003: The Beautiful People, Kirkby Gallery, Kirkby Liverpool
2003: The Beautiful People, The Storey Gallery, Lancaster
2002: The Beautiful People, DDM Warehouse, Shanghai, China
2002: The Beautiful People, Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax
2001: The Beautiful People, View 2 Gallery, Liverpool
2001: The Beautiful People, Chorlton Mill Gallery, Manchester
2000: The Beautiful People, Cartwright Hall, Bradford
2000: The Horrible People, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1998: The Beautiful People, Pannett Art Gallery, Whitby
1997: Princess Leia was my first Kiss, Phillips Contemporary Art, Manchester
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2026: Can’t See the Forest, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Norway
2025: Stage II, Bay Arts, Cardiff
2025: Stage III, Mirror, Plymouth
2025: Wrexham Painting Prize 2025, Wrexham School of Art gallery
2023: A Generous Space 3, Huddersfield Art Gallery
2023: Doll, The House of Smalls, Cotswolds, UK
2023: New Acquistions, The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
2023: Stage, Kingsgate Project Space, London (curated by LLE)
2022: Carry on Baggage, Galeria Augustine, Lisbon, Portugal
2022: RBSA Print Prize, Birmingham, UK
2020: Beep Painting Biennale, Elysium Gallery, Swansea
2019: Personal Structures, The PAPER Pavilion, Palazzo Mora, Venice
2018: Heartbeats, Galerie Parnasse, Aarhus, Denmark
2018: Lost in Space, Art Projects, London Art Fair (with PAPER & LLE)
2017: The Sense of Things, Durden & Ray, Los Angeles, USA
2017: Native, Tokyo, Japan
2017: Semiotic Guerrilla Warfare pt IV, Charlie Smith London
2016: Into the Deep Woods, Leo 15, Lucerne & PAPER
2016: Semiotic Guerrilla Warfare pt III, Dean Clough Galleries, Halifax
2015: P, Horatio Junior, London
2015: Semiotic Guerrilla Warfare pt I, PAPER, Manchester
2014: A Union of Voice, Horatio Junior, London
2014: Snow in Summer, Peek-a-boo Gallery, Perth, Australia
2014: Manchester Connexions, The New School House Gallery, York
2014: ID, Hanmi Gallery, London
2014: Far Lands, Millenium Galleries, Sheffield
2014: Human Clay Revisited, The Ropewalk, Barton upon Humber
2012: Polemically Small, Orleans House Musem, London
2011: Polemically Small, Charlie Smith, London
2011: In Safekeeping, The New Schoolhouse Gallery, York
2011: Future Can’t Wait, Torrance Art Museum, California
2011: Citizen, TactileBosch, Cardiff
2011: Marmite Painting Prize III, Lanchester Gallery, Coventry & The Nunnery, London
2010: Marmite Painting Prize III, Central Gallery, Ashton-under-Lyne, Manchester
2010: This is England, The Aubin Gallery, London & Galleria Uno+Uno, Milan, Italy
2010: Anti Design Festival, London/Newcastle Space, London
2010: Salon 8, Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong
2009: The Lure & The Seducer, Galleri Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen, Denmark
2009: Connexions, Galerie Wolfsen, Aalborg, Denmark
2009: Karma-1, Gallery 44a, Istanbul, Turkey
2008: The Future Can Wait II (curated by Ellis & Rumley) Truman’s Brewery, London
2008: Kapellmeister pulls a Doozy, Seven Seven Gallery, London
2008: The Past is History (curated by Ellis & Rumley) Changing Role, Naples & Rome, Italy
2008: The New London School (curated by Ellis, Rumley & Max Presneil), Mark Moore, LA, USA
2007: Teenage Kicks (curated by Melanie Moreau), Vegas Gallery, London
2007: The Future Can Wait, (curated by Ellis & Rumley) Truman’s Brewery, London
2006: I-POD Killed the Video Star (curated by Ken Pratt), Showroomama, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2006: I Ain’t No Yesterday’s News, Gallery Likovni Krug , Exitfest, Serbia & Tour
2005: Portreto Formate, ARKA Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania & Tour
2005: Children of the Grave- Masters of Reality (with Ross Sinclair), The Agency London
2005: Young Masters, (curated by Flora Fairburn), Art Fortnight London
2005: Hand in Hand we Walk Alone, Clapham Art Gallery
2004: Forever Beautiful, Clapham Art Gallery, London
2003: Thermo 03, The Lowry, Manchester
2002: A Word from our Sponsors, Liverpool Biennial Independents 02
2002: Perverse Pop, Catto Contemporary, London
2002: The Battle for Realism, (curated by James Hyman) Inside Space, Selfridges, London
2001: BP Portrait Award 2001, National Portrait Gallery, London
2000: Inferno, LMN Project, Guildhall, Newcastle
2000: BP Portrait Award 2000, National Portrait Gallery, London
1999: John Moores 21, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1996: Northern Graduates, Royal College of Art, London
Self-curated Group Shows:
2012: Digital Romantics, Dean Clough, Halifax & Aubin Gallery, London
2007: Fantasising Fairies, 501 Art Space, Chongqing
2007: Faith, Dean Clough, Halifax & Gallery Primo Alonso
2006: I’ll Be Your Mirror, Liverpool Biennial Independents 06 & Gallery Primo Alonso, London
2006: Jerusalem, Dean Clough, Halifax
2006: Manchester, So Much to Answer For, Warsaw Projects, Manchester
2004: Le Petit Paysage, Liverpool Biennial Independents 04 & Comme Ca, Manchester
2004: We Didn’t Mean to be Bad Kids, TV Made Us Do It, Warrington Museum & Art Gallery,
Hertfordshire University, St Albans & Collins Gallery, Glasgow
2002: I’ll be your Mirror, Warsaw Projects, Manchester
Live Art Performances
Collaborative performance with Yingmei Duan
2011: Once Upon a Time, BS Visite, Braunschweig, Germany
2010: Pathological Aesthetics, Performance festival and Symposium at University of Applied Sciences Nijmegen, Netherlands
2009: Dreams, at Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, UK
Awards:
2025: Watercolour Prize, Wrexham Painting Prize
2015: A-N Artist Development Bursary
2010: Arts Council Development Grant
2007: British Council CtC Development Grant
2002: British Council for DDM Warehouse Residency
2002: Shortlisted for BOC Emerging Artist Award 2002
2001: City Life’sVisual Arts Exhibition of the Year 2001
2001: Shortlisted for Fresh Artist 2001 Award
2001: Northwest Arts Board- Individual Artists Award
2001: Commended in BP Portrait Award
1998: Northwest Arts Board- Individual Artists Award
Residencies:
2011: York Theatre Royal
2007: 501Art Space, Chongqing, China
2004: Pyramid Arts Centre, Warrington
2002: DDM Warehouse, Shanghai, China
1998: Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Public Collections:
Dean Clough, Halifax
Derby Museum & Art Gallery
Gallery Oldham
The Atkinson, Southport
The Walker, Liverpool
The Whitaker, Rossendale
Touchstones, Rochdale
University of Salford Art Collection
Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Others Projects:
2019: Co-Founded & Director of the Fourdrinier Magazine
2012: Co-Founded & Director of PAPER, Manchester
2009: Established Mirabel Studios, Manchester
2008: Co-Founded ‘Art Group’, a peer group of Manchester-based Artists
2002-4: Established and curated Warsaw Projects @ Open Art Studios, Manchester offering emerging artists their first solo exhibition
2005: Published the artists books ‘A Cure for Everything’ & ‘Lost Beneath the Waves’ by Brya Weths