Biography

Gillian Carnegie is a contemporary British artist best known for her naturalistic and tonal paintings that include still lifes, portraiture, figure studies, and landscapes. Her moody, vernacular subject matter is a foil to the formal exercise she is performing with each painting, pushing the limits of representation as it verges on abstraction. Carnegie is noted for her quite demeanor and desire to stay out of the art world’s limelight, and her introspective nature can be found throughout her work. "I never felt the need to feel informed about the experience of seeing a painting in order that I understand it,” the artist once remarked. “I'd like to think someone would still want to look at a painting rather than inform themselves about it beforehand." Born in 1971 in Suffolk, United Kingdom, she studied in London at the Camberwell School of Art and the Royal College of Art, where she received her MA. In 2005, the artist was shortlisted for the prestigious Turner Prize. Today, Carnegie’s works are held in the collections of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the Tate Gallery in London, among others. She lives and works in London, United Kingdom.