France-Lise McGurn

France-Lise McGurn was born in Glasgow, UK in 1983. Evading the boundaries of the traditional picture plane, McGurn often eschews the limits of her canvases by extending the imagery directly onto the gallery walls and furniture brought into the space, displacing her subject and creating an immersive environment.

Instead of approaching a static painting, the artist activates the composition allowing the figures and forms to be seen as though in a field of vision. Occasionally confrontational, sometimes passive, sometimes ecstatic, these characters shift through these emotions constantly reforming their personas.Key themes in Mcgurn’s work include music, dreams, memory and popular culture. Her visual sources have included 70s film stills, Janus fetish magazine, Botticelli prints and celebrity autographs. The works are developed intuitively via the artist’s use of swift calligraphic brush marks and attention to the human form. Repeated lines and movement recall antiquity but are similarly influenced by Glasgow’s post-industrial city aesthetic. With her paintings, Mcgurn builds loops through pastel colours, speed and fluid motion. Playing with ideas around circadian rhythms and familiarity her works un-stagnate and are experienced rather than seen.

France-Lise McGurn lives and works in London, she received her MA in 2012 from the Royal College of Art, London, UK. In 2024 McGurn will have a solo show with MASSIMODECARLO and Modern Institute Glasgow. Recent notable solo and two person exhibitions include Margot Samuel, New York (2023); Simon Lee Gallery, London (2023); Glasgow International, Glasgow (2021); Tramway, Glasgow(2020); Kunsthaus Pasquart, Biel (2020). Recent group shows include: Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow (2022); National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (2021). McGurn’s work is held in prominent public collections such as K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong; David Roberts Collection, London; New Hall Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Cambrdige; TATE, London; Zabludowicz Collection, London; Dallas Museum of Art Foundation, Texas; USA Hill Art Foundation, New York and Stiftung Kunsthaus-Sammlung Pasquart, Biel.

Portrait photocredit: Amy Gwatkin