Lynsey MacKenzie
Degree: Painting and Printmaking (Hons) First Class
University: Glasgow School of Art
Graduation Year: 2019
New Blood Art Commentary
See Investable Artists II
Notable Achievements 2021
See Investable Artists I
For Lynsey MacKenzie, painting is a way to access an accumulation of memory, imagery, and observations – without the restraint of chronological time. This informs her work, which traces both fleeting recollections, and the liveness of instinctual mark making. Sensitive to the timbres of light and colour, her techniques are varied: dry brushing and dragged brushwork, meet spillages and geometric lines. In effect, engaging with MacKenzie’s large-scale pieces often feels like stepping into a new world. As when a shaft of light suddenly makes visible all the cosmic dust particles in the air, MacKenzie paints the unseen and transient into presence. Following in the line of feminist abstract painters such as Helen Frankenthaler and Joan Mitchell, her lyrical gestures truly beguile.
Artist Statement
I approach painting by combining ways of working; from memory and observations of my surroundings, to working intuitively, responding to marks and colours. Often one painting becomes a source for another. I have a deep interest in the relationships between painting and time: the timelessness of painting, the non-linear accumulation of imagery and forms, and the way that painting takes both painter and viewer outwith time.
I view paintings as time batteries, containing the labour and thinking time within them. The paintings trace and contain the passage of time. The passage of time brings about flux. Order tends towards disorder. I search for a feeling of space, of something fleeting, of nothing being quite pinned down. There is beauty in the brevity of things and I am celebrating this.
Solo Exhibitions
(2020) HERE AND NOW, SaltSpace Gallery, Glasgow
(2019) Tower View Solo Show, Tower View Gallery, Kent
(2018) Quick! Before We Airbnb It, Elderslie Street, Glasgow
Group Exhibitions
(2021) RSA Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Online
(2020) New Contemporaries 2020, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
(2020) VAS Spotlight, Borders Art Fair, Kelso
(2020) GRADUCURATE Summer 2020, Gradcurate, Online
(2020) Thoughts Are Free, Royal Glasgow Institute, Online
(2020) No Borders, Art Thou, Online
(2020) On The Table, MARRAM, Online
(2019) Visual Arts Scotland ALIGHT, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
(2019) Degree Show, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow
(2019) AucArt Lab Residency Show, AucArt Lab, London
(2019) Breakout Artists - Best of Scottish Art Schools, Art Pistol Gallery, Glasgow
(2019) Control Tower Group Show, Control Tower Gallery, Kent
(2019) Festive Fundraiser, Leith School of Art, Edinburgh
(2019) SSA | VAS OPEN, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh
(2018) Something Like That, The Glue Factory, Glasgow
(2017) Toner cartridge is almost empty, Stereo Bar Cafe, Glasgow
(2017) Series Two, McLellan Gallery & Grace Fyfe Clark Gallery, Glasgow
(2016) Naked Eye - Creep Me Oot, St Margaret's House, Edinburgh
(2016) Summer Exhibition, Leith School of Art, Edinburgh
(2015) End of Year Exhibition, Leith School of Art, Edinburgh
(2015) Naked Eye - Shapes That Shift Desire, St Margaret's House, Edinburgh
Competitions, Prizes & Awards
(2016) Leith School of Art Painting Prize
(2019) VAS Graduate Showcase 2019 Shortlisted Artist
(2019) RSA New Contemporaries 2020 Selected Artist
(2019) The Great Art Award
(2021) RSA Latimer Award
(2021) RSA WASPS Award