Thomas Macgregor

b. 1976, United Kingdom

Thomas MacGregor is a painter working and living in London. He graduated with a BA (hons) from The Edinburgh College of Art in 1999 and in 2020 he finished the Turps Studio Programme in London. His recent solo exhibitions include Futility Helmets at APT gallery, London; MacGregorETC at Patchworks, London; and the Darbyshire/Turps prize for emerging art at the Darbyshire gallery, London. His recent group exhibitions include 8AM London, Midnight in LA, Turps and Durden & Ray at Thames side studios, London; It rose and it fell, Terrace gallery, London; SSA Annual Exhibition, RSA, Edinburgh; Portrait artist of the year, curated by Kathleen Soriano, Compton Verney; and The Elephant in the Room, Durden & Ray, Los Angeles.

Thomas was awarded the Turps/Darbyshire prize for emerging art in 2021, was a finalist on Sky Arts’ Landscape artist of the year in 2022 and won the Saltire Society’s ‘Book Cover of the Year’ Award in 2023. His work is held in private collections in the UK, Europe, USA, and South America.

MacGregor sees painting as an open dialogue with society, a dialogue materialised and forwarded through a process of stark contrasts and heavily textured paint, balanced with lightness and economy. Having studied in Edinburgh in the 90s, he was influenced by the Scottish painters of the time such as Alison Watt and Peter Howson. Beyond Scotland, major ongoing influences include Paula Rego and Philip Guston. Humour is an integral tool in his work. There exists a linear narrative in MacGregor’s art, which interconnects from piece to piece - any individual work is a component part of a larger body of work, which cross-references itself. The larger it gets the more distinctive the character of the body of work becomes.

"The painting can be viewed at face value and on a basic level I am concerned with light and shadow, which I use to create depth, but there is hidden meaning in the way the paint is applied and worked into the painting. The work has to be scrutinised to find it."

Thomas MacGregor has been selected for the Young Masters 'for the love of art history' open call 2025.

CV

Representation

Cynthia Corbett Gallery