Many artists have painted self-portraits, some of the greatest - like Rembrandt - revisiting the theme in different ways throughout their lives. Craig Mulholland’s approach is both grounded in tradition and thoroughly modern. His works are carefully composed, often in highly original ways. Here, in his early twenties and newly graduated from Glasgow School of Art, he explored the fall of light on his own upturned face, painting it with a remarkable and compelling mixture of elegance and authority.

Craig Mulholland, born 1969

Born in Glasgow, Mulholland studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1987 to 1991. In his final year he was awarded the Armour Prize by the school and also received the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Canada Scholarship, which allowed him to spend a year in Montreal. Since graduating he has exhibited widely and to great acclaim, with several solo and group exhibitions in London and Scotland. He has been a visiting artist and a visiting lecturer at Glasgow School of Art and for Glasgow Museums Education Department. In 2001 he was Artist-in-Residence at the city's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
In his portraits and figure compositions Mulholland had developed a personal, imaginative style that is founded not only on the traditions of Rembrandt, Velázquez and Goya but also on the art of modern painters including Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. He is interested in the play between realism and the painted image, with the result that his works offer a disconcerting sense of mystery.
Every motif Mulholland paints is selected for a reason. Technically he is very interested in the use of glazes as practised by the seventeenth-century Old Masters. His work is constantly evolving, and recently he began to experiment with digital video animation and sound. In 2002 he produced for Switchspace in Glasgow an installation consisting of paintings and sound that reflect the aspirations of progressive American folk artists and musician, including the guitarist John Fahey, and the heroic modernism of such abstract painters as Morris Louis.