99. Lois Wallace - Distant Fire

2026
Oil on lime panel
13 x 17 x 2.6 cm

Lois Wallace is an artist whose paintings explore themes of light, stillness and fragility. Her works frequently centre on the luminosity of fire, using it as a symbol that can simultaneously evoke celebration, joy, remembrance and loss. Built through the careful accumulation of thin, transparent layers of colour, the paintings appear to emit light from within, creating atmospheres that are both contemplative and emotionally charged. The tension between light and darkness, beauty and unease, gives Wallace’s work a narrative quality that feels at once familiar, unsettling and quietly hopeful.

Wallace studied at Coventry Polytechnic, graduating with a BA (Hons) between 1977 and 1980, before completing an HDFA at The Slade School of Art, University College London (1980–1982). She later undertook the Cheltenham Painting Fellowship (1982–1983).

Recent exhibitions include Four Seasons at Holt Gallery (2026); the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and Royal Academy Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London; Site Seers at Saul Hay Gallery (2025); Works on Paper at Blue Shop Gallery (2025); Silent Fire at PS Mirabel Gallery (solo, 2022); and the Beep Painting Biennial at Elysium Gallery.

Wallace was awarded the Lund Humphries Prize and won first prize at PS Mirabel Gallery in 2019. She was also a finalist for the Columbia Threadneedle Prize.

Her work is held in collections including BP Europe Headquarters, Brussels; Kelso Consulting; and Birmingham City University.