Ross McNicol

Ross McNicol (born 1979) was born in north London and raised in rural West Sussex. He is a photographer and contemporary artist, who lives and works in London. His work has been bought by Damien Hirst for his murderme collection and is sold by Hirst's publishing company, Other Criteria. He has photographed artists including Rachel Howard.. He co-founded The Wallis Gallery in 2007..

Life and work

Ross McNicol assisted photographers including his father, an advertising photographer, Duncan McNicol, from the age of 16.

He graduated from King's College London in 2002 after studying Philosophy and became a photographer and school teacher in Paris until 2005.

He exhibited work for the first time in 2005 with his first group exhibition in Lyon, France, invited by Richard Wentworth as part of a project with the Ruskin School, Oxford University.

In 2006 he made a series of work photographed in Lithuania where he developed his current style which includes 'lining things up', 'ensuring some aspect of perfect symmetry in cropping' and the 'importance of placing objects exactly at or in line with the centre of the frame'. The photographs' compositions often allude to films by Directors such as Andrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman and Wim Wenders.

In 2007 he founded The Wallis Gallery in Hackney Wick, London with Edward Fornieles and Vanessa Carlos. . He curated and organised exhibitions and performance evenings in this space. He produced dinners including Hawthorn flower salad and Jugged Hare for its regular artist and critic visitors including Keith Tyson, Rachel Howard, Richard Wentworth and Conrad Shawcross. With The Wallis Gallery, he exhibits the work of young artists and runs a performance evening, Making Mistakes, at Paradise Row Gallery, London.

He has been photographing rites and customs throughout the UK since 2007.

Exhibitions

McNicol has shown work in group exhibitions including Masterdrive, The Wallis Gallery, London (2007), In Violet Night, The Wallis Gallery, London (2008), Wallis Dies, Paradise Row, (2009).

External links

• Ross McNicol featured at Other Criteria
• The Wallis Gallery
• Artnet London Dispatch Review
• Ross McNicol featured at Artnet
• Artinfo - Ross McNicol's works are undervalued
• The Saatchi Gallery Magazine, Laura K Jones on Masterdrive
• The Guardian, Article on exhibition Ross McNicol curated, "Wallis Dies"
• The Independent, "Ambitious Young Galleristas"
• At Art Review's Power 100