France-Lise McGurn

France-Lise McGurn was born in Glasgow, UK in 1983.


Evading the boundaries of the traditional picture plane, McGurn often eschews the limits of her canvases by extending the imagery directly onto the gallery walls and furniture brought into the space, displacing her subject and creating an immersive environment. Instead of approaching a static painting, the artist activates the composition allowing the figures and forms to be seen as though in a field of vision. Occasionally confrontational, sometimes passive, sometimes ecstatic, these characters shift through these emotions constantly reforming their personas.


Key themes in Mcgurn’s work include music, dreams, memory and popular culture. Her visual sources have included 70s film stills, Janus fetish magazine, Botticelli prints and celebrity autographs. The works are developed intuitively via the artist's use of swift calligraphic brush marks and attention to the human form. Repeated lines and movement recall antiquity but are similarly influenced by Glasgow’s post-industrial city aesthetic. With her paintings, Mcgurn builds loops through pastel colours, speed and fluid motion. Playing with ideas around circadian rhythms and familiarity her works un-stagnate and are experienced rather than seen.

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Biography

Solo exhibitions
Year
Country, Exhibition Name, Location
2024
UK, (forthcoming), Modern Institute, Glasgow
UK, (forthcoming), MASSIMODECARLO, London
2023
UK, Hostess, Simon Lee Gallery, London
UK, House of Voltaire Installation, Studio Voltaire, London
2022
UK, Aloud, The Exposé, Simon Lee Gallery, London
UK, Hospitalrooms commission for Northside House, Norwich University of the Arts, Norwich
2021
UK, Aloud, commission for Glasgow International, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
2020
UK, Percussia, Simon Lee Gallery, London
UK, In Emotia, Tramway, Glasgow
UK, Bodytronic, Kunsthaus Pasquart, Biel
2019
UK, Art Now: France-Lise McGurn, Sleepless, Tate Britain, London
2018
UK, 0141, Frutta Gallery, Glasgow
2017
UK, France-Lise McGurn, Recent Activity Gallery, Birmingham
UK, Archaos, Alison Jacques Gallery, London
2015
UK, 3am, Satellites Programme, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh
Group exhibitions
Year
Country, Exhibition Name, Location
2023
US, France-Lise McGurn and Rita McGurn, Matching Mother / Daughter Tattoos, Margot Samuel, New York
UK, Threshold, Simon Lee Gallery, London
MEX, Spiritual Abstractions, Galería RGR, Mexico City
2022
UK, Mark Making: Perspectives on Drawing, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow
UK, Body en Thrall, Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, Rugby
2021
UK, New Arrivals: From Salvador Dali to Jenny Saville, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
UK, My Kid Could’ve Done That, The Edge, Bath
2020
US, Mira Dancy, France-Lise McGurn & Clare Woods, Simon Lee Gallery, New York
2019
UK, Mark Making: Perspectives on Drawing, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow
2018
UK, A Weakness For Raisins, CCA, Glasgow
UK, Virginia Woolf: An Exhibition Inspired By Her Writings, Tate St. Ives, St. Ives
UK, Foundation Painting Show, Glasgow International, British Heart Foundation, Glasgow
2017
F, Wall-Sun-Sun, Une Une Une, Perpignan
I, Le Nouveau Voyeurisme, Hotel Contemporary, Milan
UK, A Fantasy, David Roberts Art Foundation, London
2016
UK, France-Lise McGurn and Matthew Musgrave, Supplement Gallery, London
US, Sexting, Kate Werble Gallery, New York
UK, NEO-PAGAN BITCH-WITCH!, Evelyn Yard, London
UK, Home Salon, Marcelle Joseph Projects, Ascot
F, The Old Things, Galerie Crevecoeur, Paris
UK, Radical Vulnerability, Caustic Coastal, Manchester
2015
UK, Only With A Light Touch Will You Write Well, Freely and Fast, David Dale Gallery, Glasgow
2014
UK, The White Hotel Curated by Lucy Stein and Simon Bayliss, Gimpel Fils, London
UK, Welcome to Cor Fu, The Depot, London
2013
F, Apartment 4 Curated by Hannah Lees, Rue Jeanne d’Arc, Clermont-Ferrand
UK, A Continuous Project Altered in a Day, Cor Fu, London
UK, Endogenous, Maria Stenfors Gallery, London
UK, Winter Projects, Heygate Estate, London
2012
UK, The Long Game, The Old Hairdressers, Glasgow
UK, Cultural Olympiad, Asylum at The Last Refuge, London
UK, Royal College of Art Degree Show, Royal College of Art, London
UK, K.F.S Toby Christian and France-Lise McGurn, The Lookout, Aldeburgh, Suffolk

Public collections

Country
Location
China
K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong
Switzerland
Stiftung Kunsthaus-Sammlung Pasquart, Biel
United Kingdom
David Roberts Collection, London
New Hall Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge
TATE, London
Zabludowicz Collection, London
United States of America
Dallas Museum of Art, Texas
USA Hill Art Foundation, New York

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France-Lise McGurn