Andrew Cranston Brings Glasgow's Grit to Los Angeles

Andrew Cranston brings the gritty charm of Glasgow to California, where his new paintings are on view in the solo exhibition, One day this will be a long time ago (25 July–14 September 2024), at Karma.

The Scottish artist's new series captures scenes—both interior and exterior—from the city where he has lived for the past 27 years.

The large-scale painting Voltaire and Rousseau (2024) demonstrates Cranston's flair for capturing light against darkness. The scene depicts a shadowy room in dense, chalky black acrylic, with the faint outlines of a bookshelf and birdcage visible. In stark contrast is the view of the city and its industrial buildings from a large window, with translucent washes of lilac and peach evocative of a quiet dawn.

A distinctive feature of Cranston's work is his use of hardback book covers as painting surfaces. During a studio visit with Rory Mitchell last year, Cranston explained their significance: 'Using book covers gave my work an explicit connection to storytelling. It put me in a position of having to respond to what the nature of the book was—physically, its shape, size, colour and surface, as well as its contents, and its title.'