Ken Currie | Painted Interpretations

Scottish artist Ken Currie has spent his life being haunted by paintings - artworks that have stayed with him over time, asking to be revisited. We visit him in his Glasgow studio to learn more about his own paintings (provocative, often ‘nightmarish’, filled with dark humour, and always theatrical), and why he believes that artists only do 50% of the work.
Artists in Profile is a series of films that explore the ideas, materials and processes of some of the best-known contemporary artists working today. Filmed in the artists’ studios from Argyll & Bute to Berlin; in train stations, a primary school, the shore of a loch, and the Glasgow Necropolis; these videos aim to give an insight into the spaces where artists create their work, and the places that inspire them. Watch another film in this series: bit.ly/2NsYKHt
See Ken Currie's ‘Three Oncologists' at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery: bit.ly/2u3xdQg
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[@mountainpeakcloud8442]

Something I love about Scottish artists, and Scots in general, is how straight forward, no BS, they are with saying what they mean. There's rarely ever any mincing of works, over-dramatization of language, or excess packaging with fancy rhetoric, and they can typically smell someone trying to BS from a mile away. That's something I really liked about Scottish expressionist painters like Currie and Howson.

[@SeanStClair-cr9jl]

Could not possibly agree more. His humility, his ultimate honesty - which I absolutely read in his paintings - his literal admission and acceptance of the fact that he may try to achieve one thing and people may see another... that honesty is SO NECESSARY to create the SPACE for his work to be genuine, and therefore especially meaningful, to me. I don't care what you're doing, what medium or school of creation, it could be music, whatever; if you are being very honest, there's a good chance I'm going to pick up what you're putting down and derive my most treasured value from it, which is that "I see you, as a person!" feeling. And in Currie's work I see a very kind person. He alludes to other people connecting with his work in the very way that I have been (only discovered him today lol). I have been mystified, horrified, haunted. And yet I have not felt any distaste. Just this continual impression of genuine empathy.
If this dude tried to claim his paintings could never be understood, or that they were the most important things in the universe, or whatever, I wouldn't care about them as much. But you can see in his artwork, and definitely in this interview, that he isn't making any grand claim beyond that he injects his own life experience into his work, and that he is, in fact, trying to manipulate paint to create a certain visual experience for his viewers. He called painting "old-fashioned" lol and noted that his work seems to have a certain effect "for some reason" lol. I love the guy.

[@romicarbo]

I love Ken Currie

[@EmlynBoyle]

Thanks for this. Love his work!

[@Aigsup]

Paintings are so emotional. More emotional than any other artistic medium. So looking at some of his bloody and gore paintings which are some of the best works I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing. Frightens me to my core, more than watching gore on TV

[@dc56789]

Ken Currie and Francis Bacon are huge inspiration.

[@liamrossbaker7289]

wonderful insight

[@craigstevenson4544]

Hi love Ken's work, incredibly inspiring. Wee question, does anyone know what he's doing with the roller and canvas at the 4:00 min mark?

[@bohemianes3401]

He’s possibly trying to add texture, notice he’s painting over a sheet of what appears to be a cotton dust sheet so letting the paint soak through to add a rugged texture on the actual canvas, or it could also be that he’s trying to take paint away from the canvas which is what I think he’s actually doing, it looks like this piece he is working on is ‘Black Balled Gull’ and if you look at images of the finished piece the background looks like a starry sky almost, so on the area to the left top hand corner where you see him rolling on this video you can definitely see areas of lighter shades where paint could have been removed to appear as a night sky?