Andrew Cranston is a painter-storyteller, a way of working that is enhanced by his often painting on the linen bound covers of old books. His stories coalesce in the process of making - the paintings emerging gradually through the manipulation of his materials: layering, lacquering, bleaching, collaging and constantly re- working his way into images that seem to shift backwards and forwards in time. He has described one of his works as ‘a painting that came out of my brush one day’, a statement that sums up his approach. They are resolutely contemporary in spirit and yet connected by a strong thread to painters of the past, especially perhaps to the intimism of Vuillard and Bonnard, or to Matisse or Munch.
Cranston’s work is housed in collections around the world, including: Loewe Foundation, Madrid, Spain; He Art Museum, Shunde, China; the Huamo Museum, Suzhou, China; Royal College of Art, London, UK; Unilever Collection, London, UK; Hawick Museum, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, UK; National Gallery of Scotland, UK; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Hall Art Foundation, Vermont, USA; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, USA; Portland Art Museum, Oregon, USA and the Aishti Foundation, Beirut.
Andrew Cranston's solo exhibition, Never a joiner, at Ingleby ran between June - September as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival, 2023. The exhibition was accompanied by a 184pp publication, featuring numerous illustrations of his distinctive bookcover paintings, accompanied by the artists' commentaries on his work. What made you stop here?, Cranston's first solo exhibition in a UK public institution was on show at the Hepworth Wakefield from 25 November 2023 – 2 June 2024. The show featured new and recent paintings, focusing on his work since 2016. Cranston's solo show, One day this will be a long time ago, was on show at Karma LA between July 25–September 14, 2024. Centering Glasgow, his home for the past twenty-seven years, this new series of works is a continuation of Cranston's exploration of how the world of painting, much like the world of memory, leaks into the real.
In June 2025, Pier Arts Centre in Orkney will present a group exhibition of work by Andrew Cranston and Winifred Nicholson, curated by Richard Ingleby and Jonathan Anderson.
