Peter McDonald

Peter McDonald was born in Tokyo in 1973 and lives and works in London and Tokyo. McDonald's paintings examine intricate aspects of human behaviour, gradually compiling an endless encyclopaedia of images and scenarios. His use of intense colour and universal subject matter describes a realm which balances lucid realism with vivid distortions, filled with references to modern life such as iphones, queueing, fashion shows and cafés. His pictures investigate pictorial space by playfully exploring perspective and form. This heightened sense of reality is a means through which the artist articulates experience and meaning.

Peter McDonald was appointed a Visiting Fellow at Jesus College Oxford in 2022. In 2017, he was awarded a fellowship at the British School at Rome. Recent solo exhibitions include Kate MacGarry, London (2021); Sampo, Gallery Side 2 / void +, Tokyo (2021); This, that and the other, Dio Horia, Greece (2018); Winnebago, Carpets, Onsen, Potter, Daiwa Foundation, London (2013) and Visitor, the culmination of a year-long residency at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (2011-12).

Group exhibitions include Ukiyo-e In Play, Tokyo National Museum, Japan (2025);100 Hooks, Blunk Space, Point Reyes, CA, USA (2023); Weightless, Mieke Van Schaijk, The Netherlands (2019); Museum of Together, Spiral Building, Tokyo (2017); Roppongi Art Night, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2016) and Making & Unmaking, Camden Arts Centre, London (2016). In 2008, he was awarded the John Moores Painting Prize and in 2009, London Underground commissioned McDonald to produce Art for Everybody, a large-scale billboard installation at Southwark Station.

Peter McDonald

Teaching, Airport, Hair Salon, Bakery, Snooker