Ken Currie

The work of Ken Currie gravitates towards a distinct interest in the body, both metaphorically and physically, and the terror of human mortality. Illness, ageing and physical injury and how the human body is affected by it and deals with it feature prominently within his work. Currie himself has stated that he rarely works from models, more often than not using himself as the subject for his works. He stated, "Even as student, I had a complete abhorrence of the life room, I couldn’t stand this idea of doing mechanical recording of a figure in front of me, it felt like a complete abnegation of the ability to think, to use your imagination."

Currie holds the belief that paintings should be able to speak for themselves, that nothing should interrupt the encounter between viewer and work, even destroying one of his own paintings after a view said too definitively that it was about the banking crisis.

Source: Ken Currie: details of a journey 759.2/CUR