Alison Watt

Details extracted from art historical paintings and photographs often provide the starting points for Alison Watt’s hyperrealistic works, which can feature sculptural white fabrics or isolated items such as ribbon necklaces and feathers. Interested in how the human presence suggested by still life objects act as a form of portraiture, Watt has created paintings based on masterpieces she studied during her time as an artist-in-residence at The National Gallery in London or the portraits of Scottish painter Allan Ramsay. She often exhibits her works as a series, as with Warrender (2016), a folded sheet of crisp white paper that forms part of a body of work based on a single trompe l’oeil painting by obscure 18th century artist Thomas Warrender. Watt studied at the Glasgow School of Art and has had several solo institutional exhibitions in the U.K. Her works are held by the Uffizi in Florence, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and the British Council Collection.