Somewhere along the border of figurative and abstract, Jamie Gallagher’s visceral, contorted portraits reveal states of the human psyche, manifested as a refined use of colour and texture. Gallagher brings his comprehensive knowledge of colour theory and composition, developed in his twenty-year career as an artistic director, to his paintings, allowing him to enact a push and pull between figurative and expressionist forms which reflect the root of his practice: a pursuit of introspection.

Born in Edinburgh, Gallagher slowly made his way south to study design at University of the West of England in Bristol, before settling in Herefordshire. He now splits his time between his studio in rural Herefordshire, and Toronto, where he runs a creative agency. His career in creative direction led him to explore a range of media, from photography and virtual reality to typography and branding. However, he didn’t begin painting until around 2015, a time in which the loss of a close friend, a painter, inspired him to turn to the medium as a means of processing grief and the general ebbs and flows occurring in his life. For Gallagher, painting became therapy: the materiality and process a welcome vehicle for simultaneously exploring the medium and his mind.

Gallagher uses the physicality of paint to explore the border between abstraction and figuration, he considers his practise to be more the guidance of materials and reactions to their behaviour, than an intent to create a specific image. A deep connection with the materials and tactility of the process feed the work—From the heavy impasto oils and raw, textured linens to delicate gold leaf, diamond dust and bleeding inks—each mark is instinctive, each image forged during the process rather than conceived of in advance. Shifting uncomfortably from sensitive to brutal, his work finds beauty in life’s more visceral themes. 

Despite no formal fine arts training, Gallagher’s style is nuanced and concrete, with a Bacon-esque atmosphere. Gallagher’s process is intuitive, improvisational, and reactive. He doesn’t work from reference; rather, he approaches his portraits with a figurative intent. He nurtures his muscle memory and familiarity with the human body through live model sessions and is currently exploring the use of AI-generated figures as inspiration, finding that the contorted and uncanny renderings bring a different body of language to his work. It is only after completion, when his paintings lay against the studio wall, that he uncovers what was processed in the making of the work. Naming his works is an intrinsic part of his process. While his titles may not hold significance for everyone, for Gallagher, they are personal breadcrumb-trail to his state of mind whilst the work was made.

Gallagher’s practice, which started in an old mill-turned-studio, blossomed from a private pursuit to sharing his art with the public when he was approached to hold a solo exhibition, Post Normality Reality Disorder, in 2018. Gallagher has since been shown in multiple galleries and institutions across the UK, and his work is held in private collections worldwide. His paintings remain deeply personal explorations of the human condition, and more specifically, his own internal condition, with their engaging use of colour and composition an invitation to reflect on our own state of being.