39. John Stark - Still Life with Fruits and Wild Flowers

2025
Oil on copper
15 x 20 cm (unframed)

John Stark (b. 1979) creates a Neo-Medieval world of magical realism, blending recent and historical artistic traditions to explore imagination through both personal and political perspectives. His paintings combine photorealist precision with Old Master techniques, often transforming everyday objects into symbolic meditations on desire, nourishment and mortality. Recent still lifes focus on themes of memento mori and the transience of life, using carefully arranged compositions to express a quiet but emotionally charged personal poetry.

Working primarily in oil on copper, Stark’s paintings merge contemporary psychological tension with references to folklore, Gothic imagery and devotional painting. His work inhabits a space between fantasy and realism, where symbolic objects and figures become vehicles for exploring vulnerability, power and the subconscious.

Born in London, Stark studied at the Royal Academy Schools from 2001 to 2004, following a First Class BA (Hons) at the University of the West of England between 1999 and 2001. He now lives and works in East Sussex.

Recent exhibitions include Nacht Manet (2026) at Galerie Michael Haas, Pelt at OHSH Projects, and the solo exhibition The Diver at Connersmith in 2025. His work has also been shown at Flowers Gallery, Christine König Galerie, Arusha Gallery, the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, the Saatchi Gallery, James Freeman Gallery, Marta Herford Museum and the Walker Art Gallery for the John Moores Painting Prize.

His awards and residencies include the South Beach Lookout Tower Residency in Aldeburgh (2014), the Arts Council Curatorial Award (2006), and the Royal Academy Schools / Loughborough University Artists Residency and Teaching Fellowship (2004).

Stark’s work is held in numerous international private collections including Soho House, the David Roberts Collection, the Westhoff Collection, the Reydan Weiss Collection, the Sor Rusche Collection and collections belonging to Sophie Ellis-Bextor and James Lavelle.