Born in Norfolk in 1982, London-based artist Nicholas McLeod graduated in Fine Art from City And Guilds Of London Art School in 2009.
The artist describes his practise and process as: 'Photographs of abandoned places, wastelands and crime scenes are the point from which my paintings start. I feel that apart from being images of horror or catastrophe the dialectic between the banal and the momentous is what intrigues me about such imagery. Recently I have begun making paintings of interiors, based on images from 1950's true crime magazines. My paintings try to deal with the psychological aspect of such imagery and the relationship between the domestic space and the nature of the events that may have occurred there. These source images elicit a variety of emotions within me that I attempt to convey through my work. I am interested in how we project ideas onto inanimate objects and so a house or interior space can become the personification of a danger or threat that we feel may be prevalent within it. Essentially within my work I want to render the familiar and commonplace, strange and threatening. I feel that by using paint I can best describe the emotions that I feel are implicit within my source material.
Relating back to artists like Edward Hopper and the sense of unease his paintings manage to convey, I wish to engage with a tradition of image making that deals with the effects our surroundings have upon us. I also wish to deal with the somewhat unfashionable genre of landscape painting.'
McLeod was awarded The Threadneedle Visitor's Choice Award in 2011, The Norman Ackroyd Award for Printmaking in 2009 and the Printmaking Prize for Technical Excellence: City And Guilds Of London Art School in 2007. His work has also been included in many group exhibitions in London such as 'One Year On' at 72 Theobalds Road in 2011; Garage Show at Royal College Street in 2010; Postcards From Dystopia at Nolias Gallery in 2009; 'Interim Show' at Electricians Shop in 2008; 'Adopted Art' at Cafe Royal in 2008 and 'Interim Show' at Maddox St. Gallery in 2007.
