Calder MacKay

Born in Perth Scotland

Lives and works in London, UK

Artist Statement

MacKay’s painting practice attempts to unpick the relentless hum of living today. A condition shaped by overstimulation, digital mediation and the quiet alienation of contemporary life. Working from found archival and digital imagery, he pulls fragments of the past into dialogue with the anxieties and absurdities of the present. Through exaggerated saturation, distortion and overexposure, familiar scenes become heightened and uncanny. Painting through shifting layers, he builds upon this feeling of unease. Digitally warping this pantomime of reality, where colossal limbs are cooking beneath the fluorescent bulbs of today.

At its core, the work is driven by a desire to resist emotional detachment and passive spectatorship. He uses the archive not as a call to return to the past, but to question what we’ve replaced it with. His work reflects on the tension of a generation suspended between cynicism and hope. Yet during these times of uncertainty there is a quiet reshuffling, and while the roof collapses, nostalgia holds us together. 

While we grieve the loss of a future that didn’t arrive.

Education

2025-26 Royal College of Art, London

2020-24 Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design

Awards

RSA David Michie Travel Award 2024

RSA New Contemporaries 2025 

Boom Graduates Dissertation Publication Award 2024

Visual Arts Association New Artist Award 2025