254. Louise Reynolds - If I Told the Truth

2026
Watercolour pencils and gouache on wood panel
17.8 x 12.7 x 2 cm

Louise Reynolds (b. 1998) is an artist from Hamilton, Scotland, who lives and works in London. Extracting fleeting phrases from the news cycle and clickbait media forms the imaginative point of departure for her work. By dreaming upon titles, comments, and speeches that snag her attention, Reynolds transforms fragments of language into a personal world of magical realism, capturing a simultaneous sense of anxiety and comedy. The titles of the works provide clues to their original source material, leaving behind only glimmers of the familiar.

Interested in the overwhelming saturation of information consumed daily, Reynolds uses painting and drawing as a way of slowing down and reflecting back the tangled narratives left in its wake. Figures, plants, mountains, waters, and skies recur throughout the work, often drawing from her family’s rural background. Condensing references to both high and low culture, she questions hierarchical structures through both subject matter and medium, frequently favouring pencils and watercolour on wood over more traditional materials, while also working in oil paint and etching.

Reynolds completed The Drawing Year at the Royal Drawing School, London (2021–2022), following a BA (Hons) in Painting & Printmaking at The Glasgow School of Art (2016–2020).

Recent exhibitions include SORB: Hardcore Uproar at SET Lewisham, London (2025); Camouflage at The Stash Gallery, London (2025); Drawn Together at the Royal Drawing School, London (2025); Red Sky at Morning at UNIT, London (solo, 2024); Inside Job at Tate Modern, London (2024); Reframing the Muse at St John’s College, Oxford (2024); TEN: A Decade of Unit London (2023); Once Bitten Twice Shy at Unit, London (online solo, 2023); Red in Tooth and Claw at Filet Space, London (2023); Best of the Drawing Year at Christie’s, London (2022); and The Drawing Year 2022 at the Royal Drawing School, London (2022).

Residencies include Dumfries House, Scotland (2025); Gwrych Castle, Wales (2024); and Hauser & Wirth Braemar, Scotland (2023). In 2020, she received the John Kinross Award from the Royal Scottish Academy. Her work is held in collections including The Royal Collection, The Royal Scottish Academy, Hauser & Wirth Braemar, and Dumfries House.