103. Lily Macrae - Celestial I
AOAP Projects x Royal Society of Arts Summer Show
2026
Oil on panel
17.7 x 12.7 x 3.6 cm
Signed on Verso
Lily Macrae (b. 1994, Edinburgh, Scotland) lives and works in Glasgow. Working primarily in oil paint, Macrae draws on a wide range of source material, often anchored by appropriated imagery from art history. Her paintings are particularly influenced by the drama, movement and theatrical use of light found in Baroque painting, which she reinterprets through a contemporary lens to create psychologically charged and atmospheric works.
Macrae studied Fine Art at Edinburgh College of Art, graduating with a BA (Hons) in 2016.
Recent solo exhibitions include Virtues & Vices at Long Story Short Gallery (2025); How the Light Gets In at Soho Revue (2023); Reverie at &Gallery (2023); Laid Bare at Long Story Short (2022); and Phantoms: Between Here and There at 3331 Arts Chiyoda (2019).
Selected group exhibitions include The Contemporary British Painting Prize (2024); Frontiers: Painting in Scotland Now at the Royal Scottish Academy (2024); We Like Dancing and Look Divine at 180 Strand (2024); Fondations at Cohle Gallery (2024); and What Now? at PM/AM Gallery (2023).
Macrae was a finalist for The Contemporary British Painting Prize and The Hopper Prize, and has received support from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation and The Hope Scott Trust. In 2019, she undertook a residency with Arts Chiyoda in Tokyo, Japan.
Blog posts
Meet the Artist: Marcelle Hanselaar
I spent the 60’s and 70’s off the beaten track, mostly in Asia so pop music was not part of my world. I was, still am, into Jazz and Classical World music, so Paul McCartney did not have an impact on me. But reading the title, I liked the weirdness of the line and being that it was selected by War Child it brought up straight away exploding images for me.
Meet the Artist: Diana Copperwhite
