The Japanese-English artist Peter McDonald is well known for his whimsical portrayals of modern life. Born in Tokyo, the artist studied at Central Saint Martins and the Royal Academy Schools. Influenced by the graphic language of the Japanese artist Sadamasa Motonaga, McDonald's signature visual vocabulary and use of intense colour in relation to quotidian subject matter creates a magical realm which balances lucid realism with vivid distortions. Like performers on a stage, his subjects are portrayed in curlers at the hairdressers, with their iPhones, clubbing, slashing canvases in tribute to Lucio Fontana, bidding at auction, their translucent bubble heads reaching towards each other in this meditation on joy, longing and distance in contemporary society.
Peter McDonald currently lives and works between London and Tokyo. In 2017, McDonald was awarded a fellowship at the British School at Rome. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at Gallery Side 2 (Tokyo, 2021), Kate MacGarry Gallery (London, 2021). A solo institutional exhibition was held at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa September 2011 - March 2012. McDonald was awarded the John Moores Painting Prize in 2008, and in 2009 London Underground commissioned McDonald to produce Art for Everybody, a large-scale billboard installation at Southwark station.
Provenance
Gallery Side 2, Tokyo Acquired from the above by the present owner