Thomas MacGregor

Thomas MacGregor is a figurative painter based in London who captures his surroundings, synthesizes them, and transforms them into the images he wants to see. In the late 90s, his work in Edinburgh revolved around the darker sides of nightlife. He was involved in the emerging comedy scene, and his work became the iconic cowboy logo for the "The Stand Comedy Club." From 2001 to 2007, he taught drawing and painting at HMP Edinburgh. In 2007, Thomas moved to Cochabamba for an artist residency, which culminated in three solo exhibitions. Since 2009, he has lived in northeast London and primarily focuses on representational portrait painting. In 2018, Thomas returned to Bolivia for a 9-month stay with a Bolivian paratrooper regiment. This stay coincided with a distance course at the Turps Art School and laid the foundation for an extensive body of work. Thomas returned to London to participate in the Turps studio program, and this academic course structure pushed him away from rendering and the commitment to representational depiction towards a more ambiguous abstraction that suited a quicker realization of content and meaning. Thomas's work now oscillates between old and new, never fully committing to either, and portrait painting still makes up a significant part of his existence. He was awarded the Turps/Darbyshire Award for emerging art in 2020, was a candidate for Sky Arts' "Portrait artist of the year" in 2019 and 2020, and was a finalist for Sky Arts' "landscape artist of the year" in 2021.