Ken Currie RSA (Elect) is renowned for his unsettling portrayal of the human figure. His rich, luminous paintings depict mysterious rites, rituals, and quasi-medical practices, offering a meditation on violence in its many guises.
Currie studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1978-1983 and rose to attention within a generation of painters known as the 'New Glasgow Boys' in the 1980s. In 1987, Currie completed a powerful series of large scale History paintings for the People’s Palace in Glasgow. Through the 90's, deeply affected by humanitarian events in Eastern Europe, Currie's works evolved, his focus shifting to confront ideas of mortality and corruption, both physical and moral. Over the last 10 years Currie's work has addressed the horrors of the contemporary world, without shying away from their brutality or grotesque nature. His painting Unknown Man, a portrait of the eminent Forensic Anthropologist Sue Black was acquired for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2022. A new book “Ken Currie Paintings and Writings”, was published in 2023.
Ken Currie has exhibited widely internationally, including a 2013 solo exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery which also commissioned his painting Three Oncologists. Currie's work is held in many major public collections including Tate, London; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art; McMaster Museum of Contemporary Art, Hamilton, Ontario; Campbelltown Arts Centre, New South Wales; Yale Center for British Art, New Haven; Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon; and the British Council, London.
