Street art is fast becoming one of the most popular modern art forms that currently out there - it's basically a city's outdoor museum and can completely transform bland and mundane buildings and streets, into some of the most colourful, thought -provoking and exciting areas of the world - and even better, showcasing the talent of the local artists.
The city of Glasgow's street art in particular is pretty legendary - and one of the most prominent street artist around Glasgow, is the amazingly creative James Klinge. James, who has produced some of Glasgow's best loved pieces under his old alias 'Klingatron' - including 'Tiger Style' on Clyde Street - has also previously worked for Red Bull and Jagermeister, as well as Glasgow City Council. But more recently, since putting spray paint to canvas and bringing his urban art form indoors and into gallery settings - James has become the latest artist to join the Robertson Fine Art portfolio and has produced a real showstopping collection that beautifully demonstrates how art, regardless of form and medium, can be extremely powerful.
After graduating from Art College with a degree in Illustration and Printmaking, Glasgow born James Klinge soon came to the realisation that he was destined for a life as an artist and not an illustrator and so chose to follow on down a different path in life. There was one technique however, that James had become obsessed with during his time at art school, and this was the use of stencils. James adapted this skill over a period of time, and through the combination of the extreme detail of his intricate stencil work with expressively painted marks, and by choosing spray paint as his medium - his signature style was born. Over the past 12 years James has managed to build a career that has allowed him exhibit his work across the UK in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol and London as well as internationally in several cities in Australia.
James' artworks, which focus mainly on the human form - are sophisticated, thought provoking and beautifully haunting. The colour palette he uses in his works focuses mainly on more neutral tones, with the figures often shaded in black- which not only allows the subject matter to stand out against their pale backgrounds, but also highlights the incredibly striking textures which James has created through the use of spray paint alone - which is quite a remarkable thing to do! His expressive quality in his paintings compliments the intense detail he captures from the use of his stencils, which are only used once and destroyed after his unique and individual painting has been completed.
The latest collection James has produced for Robertson Fine Art are a set of outstanding portrait studies - each feature his wife Jennifer in varied poses and are completely captivating and exceptional depictions which we believe perfectly exhibits this man's unrivaled style. We launched these four new works at the Glasgow Art Fair at Kelvingrove gallery last weekend, where they were met with huge success - and James soon became one of the most talked about artists at the show! We are aware from this reaction that there are big things ahead for James Klinge - and we can't wait to now be a part of the journey!
These original works are now available to buy through our website, along with a sensational series of original figurative works from James - and we are also delighted to be displaying these currently in our Edinburgh gallery, so pop along to see us today and be blown away by the style and substance of this modern day artist!