Justin Mortimer

Justin Mortimer is an acclaimed portrait artist with a distinguished career that includes commissioned works for David Bowie, Harold Pinter, and Queen Elizabeth II. Mortimer’s abstracted style of representation recalls that of Francis Bacon; his painting The Queen (1997) caused controversy for its depiction of the monarch with her head separated from her body. After winning the National Gallery’s BP Portrait Award when he was 21, Mortimer exhibited widely throughout the 1990s before taking a hiatus from painting; reemerging in 2008 with a considerably darker palette and subject matter. His newer works are set in post-apocalyptic landscapes and feature ambiguous historical imagery made from digital collages. Mortimer’s works have been shown in solo and group exhibitions around the world. His portraits are held in numerous private and public collections such as the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Portrait Gallery of Canada, and the Bank of America collection.