Andrew Grassie

Observed by leading contemporary art critic Professor Lu Mingjun, Andrew Grassie’s practice is often situated within the lineage of photorealism—yet it transcends the genre entirely. Rather than mere imitation, the artist pursues what can be described as "Extreme Replication", translating the physical properties of photography into the materiality of painting by employing egg tempera.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

From November 12, 2025, to March 8, 2026, Fotografiska Shanghai will present Something or Nothing, a new solo exhibition by British artist Andrew Grassie. The exhibition offers a profound meditation on memory, time, and the permeable boundaries between mediums. With meticulous precision, Grassie transforms the stillness of a photograph into the slow, enduring flow of paint, granting each captured moment a renewed sense of permanence.

Observed by leading contemporary art critic Professor Lu Mingjun, Grassie’s practice is often situated within the lineage of photorealism—yet it transcends the genre entirely. Rather than mere imitation, the artist pursues what can be described as "Extreme Replication", translating the physical properties of photography into the materiality of painting. Employing egg tempera, a medium central to European Renaissance practice between the 14th and 16th centuries, Grassie reconstructs the light, texture, and temporal residue of photographic images, layer by layer.

Yet, no act of replication can ever be perfect. The subtle "deviation" that occurs when pixels turn into brushstrokes is, for Grassie, the very essence of his pursuit. The human hand, eye, and emotion intervene, transforming the mechanical nature of photography with the warmth of human presence. This subtle imperfection resonates as the echo of an ancient craft asserting its relevance within modernity. In an age of ubiquitous image-making, Grassie redefines the boundaries of photography through an almost artisanal dedication: not as replacement, but as transformation; not as duplication, but as rebirth. Painting and photography enter into a symbiotic dialogue.

This new series originates from an open call for images of Shanghai. At the artist’s invitation, from over one thousand submission of photographs form the public, expressing the nuanced themes of "something" and "nothing", the artist selected eleven photos then transforming each into egg tempera paintings. These street scenes, captured by ordinary individuals, carry their personal memories and feelings to the city. Through the eyes of an outsider, Grassie intervenes in these images, building a delicate yet powerful connection to Shanghai via the tactile subtlety of tempera. This ambiguity of medium creates what Grassie terms "visual suspension"—a state where viewers hover between reality and representation, between the transient and the timeless, compelled to reconsider the very essence of "something" and "nothing".

In this exhibition, Grassie invites viewers to reconsider the very nature of presence and absence—much like reimagining the boundaries between photography and painting. Perhaps the answer lies within each visitor who immerses themselves in the exhibition space.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Andrew Grassie was born in 1966 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He received a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Painting at St. Martin’s School and a MA in Painting at Royal College of Art. He lives and works in London.

The artist has taught at City and Guilds of London Art School, Anglia Ruskin Art School, Cambridge and University of the Arts, Camberwell and held visiting lectures at Manchester School of Art, Edinburgh College of Art, Goldsmiths College of Art, Chelsea School of Art, Royal Academy School of Art, Winchester School of Art, Newcastle Art School and Emily Carr Art School in Vancouver.

The artist's solo exhibitions include:

‘Looking for something that doesn’t exist’, Maureen Paley, Studio M, London (2022)

‘Still Frame’, Esther Schipper, Berlin (2020)

‘Studio Proposals’, Maureen Paley, London (2017)

‘Fabrication’, Johnen Galerie, Berlin (2016)

‘Andrew Grassie – Collected Works’, Rennie Collection, Vancouver (2012)

‘Archive’, Johnen Galerie, Berlin (2010)

‘Painting as Document’, Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh (2009)

‘Private’, Sperone Westwater, New York (2006)

‘New Hang’, Art Now, Tate Britain, London (2005)

Selected group exhibitions include:

‘360º – Why We Paint?’, BY ART MATTERS, Hangzhou (2025)

‘X-Contemporary British Painting’, Newcastle Contemporary Art, Newcastle (2023)

‘A Century of the Artist’s Studio: 1920 – 2020, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2022)

‘Subradar’, Laurie Gennilard Gallery, London (2022)

‘Le realtà ordinarie’, Palazzo de' Toschi, Bologna (2020)

‘Spring 2019: Collected Works’, Rennie Collection, Vancouver (2019)

‘Phase II – Imagining Architecture’, Institut Supérieur des Arts de Toulouse, Toulouse (2018)

‘General Rehearsal’, MMOMA, Moscow (2018)

‘Fully Awake’, blip blip blip, Leeds (2017)

‘Wundercamera: Savannah’, Telfair Museum, Savannah (2017)

‘Complicity: Artifice and Illusion’, Collyer Bristow Art Galleries, London (2016)

‘Return Journey’, Mostyn, Llandudno (2014)

‘Wundercamera’, Pitzhanger Manor, London (2013)

‘Summer 2013: Collected Works’, Rennie Collection, Vancouver (2013)

‘Government Art Collection – Commissions: Now and Then’, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2012)

‘Conversation Piece’, Johnen Galerie, Berlin (2010)

‘Slow Painting’, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen (2010)

His work is represented in the collections of BY ART MATTERS, Hangzhou; Tate, London; Rennie Collection, Vancouver; Government Art Collection, London; Goetz Collection, Munich and Zabludowicz Collection, London.

With Special Thanks: NIPPON PAINT CHINA