Moyna Flannigan, b. 1962

Born in Kirkcaldy, Flannigan studied at Edinburgh College of Art and at Yale University School of Art. Initially, she painted in an abstract style but is now best known for her fictional portraits, typically based on observations of middle-class society whilst playing typical tragicomedic characters. Her influences are as diverse as the sculpture of Giacometti, the films of Tarkovsky and the frescoes of Masaccio. Flannigan's series of portrait miniatures Once upon our time was commissioned by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and exhibited there in 2004. In 2006 she was selected for the Mount Stuart visual arts residency and her work A Foot Print in the Hall was shown as an intervention in the historical collection at Mount Stuart. New work shown at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in 2019 revealed she had taken a new direction, cutting up and collaging drawings and paintings. She taught at Glasgow School of Art 1995-2005 and is now a teaching fellow at ECA.