France-Lise McGurn (born 1983) is a Glasgow-based artist who predominantly works with painting to create fluid works that spill from the canvas onto the gallery walls, floors and ceilings.
In her work McGurn draws on a collected archive of found imagery to create figurative installations which express notions of sexuality, ecstasy, loss and consciousness. The new body of work presented in Sleepless explores the experience of living in a city as one that is intimate and inherently sexual. The exhibition title itself evokes key themes in McGurn’s work, including partying, dreams, longing, motherhood and nostalgic popular culture, recalling the 1993 romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle. Working intuitively rather than through direct appropriation, McGurn uses swift brushstrokes and repeated marks to create loose associations about place and history, inviting viewers to conjure their own narratives.
Her work has been featured in Extensa Suite, Hospitalfield, Arbroath, 2018, Virginia Woolf, an exhibition inspired by her writings 2017–18, Tate St Ives, Pallant House, Chichester, and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. In January 2020 McGurn will have a solo exhibition at Tramway, Glasgow.
Art Now is a series of free exhibitions showcasing emerging talent and highlighting new developments in British art.
Art Now: France-Lise McGurn: Sleepless is curated by Zuzana Flaskova.
