PETER MCDONALD

Peter McDonald’s subject is the everyday, and his paintings are triggered by real life experiences, be it waiting in line for the Eurostar or having a blocked kitchen sink. One idea leads to another; themes reproduce, mutate, spread, and create a synthesised universe. McDonald’s use of intense colour and universal subject matter describes a realm which balances lucid realism with vivid distortions, filled with references to modern life such as iphones, queueing, fashion shows and cafés. His pictures investigate pictorial space by playfully exploring perspective and form. This heightened sense of reality is a means through which the artist articulates experience and meaning.

Peter McDonald was born in Tokyo in 1973. He lives and works in London and Tokyo. McDonald has been awarded a fellowship at the British School at Rome which he will begin later this year. His exhibition at Kate MacGarry follows his solo presentation at Frieze Art Fair 2015 which included 80 works on paper. Recent exhibitions include Roppongi Art Night, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2016); Making and Unmaking, Camden Arts Centre, London (2016); Winnebago, Carpets, Onsen, Potter, Daiwa Foundation, London (2013) and Visitor, a year-long residency at the 21^st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (2011–2012). In 2008 he was awarded the John Moores Painting Prize and in 2009, London Underground commissioned McDonald to produce Art for Everybody, a large-scale billboard installation at Southwark station.