Iain Faulkner | 2026

Scottish artist Iain Faulkner graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1996 with a BA in Fine Art. He has had numerous solo shows in the UK, USA, France, Switzerland, Spain and Italy. His works feature a lone protagonist. Dressed uniformly in white shirt, black suit trousers and leather shoes, we see him paused between activities at a moment of reflection, pre-occupation or self-absorption. These scenes highlight moments of withdrawal and consolidation, where the subject turns inward.  The images imply a sense of a nomadic existence. The fact that his face is obscured or turned away, allows us to see this figure as an everyman, a player both familiar and universal.

The pictures are rendered in a highly-controlled, meticulously-realised representational technique, where skilful draughtsmanship and a masterful handling of light and shade combine to articulate the architecture, space and atmosphere. Faulkner deploys a cool palette dominated by bluish tones of black, grey and white to create calm detachment. The paintings abound in reflective surfaces: glass, polished chrome and painted metal refract, fragment and repeat.