John Atherton
We came across John Atherton’s layered collage works during the Spring of 2022. His work was selected as part of our NAA x Summer Exhibition and we were instantly drawn to the folds, screen prints and collaged composition of his 3 dimensional works with paper.
Originally from Scotland John Atherton studied Graphic Design at The Glasgow School of Art. He lived and worked in London as a screen printer, designer, curator and assistant to international artists before attending The Royal College of Art from 2017 till 2019. After graduating he was selected for both the Clifford Chance Purchase Prize, and Travers Smith, CSR Art Programme.
His current artistic practice is based on a chance discovery of a series of Swedish school yearbook and the portraits found in each.
‘It’s a seemingly arbitrary starting point for my work, a quite unpredictable and fortuitous beginning. The yearbook symbolises a rite of passage, a point of departure, it captures a moment of infinite possibility, the imminent journey to an unknown destination. My work is screen printed onto different papers and collaged together but I think of myself as a painter, the piles of paper, my colour palette.
These layers of materials and imagery embody a vast hinterland of narratives and creative ideas that echo back to the yearbook. The creative journey and the personal narratives are encoded in the stratification of materials with only the most recent layer fully visible.’
Contact the Nordic Art Agency for information about available works by John Atherton
Installation images from John Atherton’s solo exhibition Nostalgia of Distance
Portrait of M.E
Portrait of C.F
Artist Biography
EDUCATION
(2017-2019) Royal College of Art, MA, Fine Art, Print
(1995-1999) Glasgow School of Art, BA, Visual Communications
(1994) Leith School of Art, Foundation level
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2023
Art Auction, Nordic Art Agency, Malmö
Collective Exhibition, Marie Gallery 5, Malta
2022
Summer Exhibition, Nordic Art Agency, Malmō
Stripped, Galleria Azur, Madrid
Seeing Abstraction, Galleria Azur, Madrid
2021
Summer Exhibition, Jealous Gallery, London
Homecoming, Galleri Revolt, Boras (Solo)
Hot Sheet Expo, the Department Store, London
2020
An Absent Presence, Galleri SM, Ulricehamn (Solo)
Lures, Tension Fine Art, London
2019
Clifford Chance Purchase Prize, London
Travers Smith, CSR Art Programme, London
Quivering Horizons, Berwick Upon Tweed
What A Relief, CGP Gallery, London
Images Can Be, The Crypt Gallery, London
PUBLICATIONS
2023
Nostalgia of Distance Box Set Launch, Nordic Art Agency, Malmö
2020
Exhibition article, Boras Tidning
Hot Sheet Expo, Exhibition Publication
Exhibition article, Ulricehamns Tidning
Spring, bluebee Magazine
2019
Clifford Chance Purchase Prize, Exhibition Publication
Travers Smith, CSR Art Programme, Exhibition Publication
TALKS
Nordic Art Agency Podcast: Nostalgia Of Distance
Artist Talk, Nordic Art Agency, Malmö
Nordic Art Agency Podcast: Summer Exhibition
Artist Talk, University for the Creative Arts, Farnham
Artist Talk, University of Gloucestershire
Building An Artist Residency, Royal College of Art, London
WRITING