Harry Spike British , b. 1996

Harry Spike’s work explores the relationship between the human figure and the imagined spaces they inhabit. Often starting with a form of text, inspiration is drawn from sources such as song lyrics, local folklore tales from the Peak District where he grew up, and his own dream journals. Spike’s process is rooted in drawing: observational studies are collaged with his drawings from film and found photography. When translated into paint, narrative elements stand in for personal visual experiences, which become further distorted through memory and the physical act of making itself. Through a repeated process of addition and erasure, Spike constructs form, light, and colour. A sense of stillness pervades Spike’s work; the viewer is held within moments of focus and suspension, positioning the image as a threshold between lived experience and constructed narrative.

 

Harry Spike earned a BA in Painting and Printmaking from Glasgow School of Art in 2018, and graduated from The Drawing Year at the Royal Drawing School in 2020.  Spike had his debut solo exhibtion at Cob Gallery and has participated in group exhibitions at Christie’s, London, UK; The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, UK and Mothflower Gallery. Spike’s work is included in The Royal Collection, London.

 

EDUCATION

2018 BA (Hons) Painting and Printmaking, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland

2019 The Drawing Year, Royal Drawing School, London 

EXHIBITIONS

2026 Dig, Cob Gallery, London, UK (forthcoming) 

2025 Half Pints, Full Talents, The French House, London, UK

2023 Royal Drawing School: Celebrating the Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III & Queen Camilla, Christie’s, London, UK

2023 The Tone in Which It’s Said, The French House, London, UK

2022 ‘Still, Passing’, Mothflower Gallery, digital exhibition 

2021 Best of The Drawing Year, Christie’s, London, UK

2019 RSA New Contemporaries, The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, UK