Biography

b. King’s Lynn, Norfolk, England, 1980.

Graduated in Graphic Design from Norwich University College of the Arts, 2003.

Lee Madgwick’s mysterious and emotive paintings depict scenes of abandonment, seclusion and dereliction. Both his urban and rural pictures portray parts of the modern landscape that are often overlooked by many (with occasional sprinklings of surrealism). With an undercurrent of mischievous menace throughout, the subject matter is at once thrown into question. Who inhabits these places? What lives do they lead? What has happened or what is about to happen? “I would describe my work as imagined realism. I hope to achieve a sense of drama in my paintings, presenting a familiar image yet placing it in an intimate, moody and possibly unlikely setting. A narrative is very important – but intentionally never fully explained. I like to leave it for the viewer to come up with their own interpretation.”

Lee paints on canvas in oils and acrylics. A play of light is used to generate an abundance of seemingly inexplicable moods to contrast with a brooding sky. Lee has exhibited throughout the UK including London and Edinburgh as well as Dublin, Amsterdam, Rome, Milan, Stockholm, Madrid, Singapore and New York. His work features in private art collections around the world.

In recent years he was elected as a member of the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) – in 2015, was asked by Banksy to showcase his work alongside internationally acclaimed artists at a large temporary art project called Dismaland – in 2018 his drawing ‘Shroud’ was selected for the Derwent Art Prize, and in 2019 was commissioned to paint a piece to feature as the cover art on the Kaiser Chiefs album ‘Duck’.

 

‘Lee Madgwick’s work always makes me think of a brooding kind of cinema. It’s as though Alfred Hitchcock had possessed Edward Hopper.’ Douglas Henshall – TV, film and stage actor

Lee Madgwick’s paintings have the unearthly power of a disturbing dream in which familiar places are cut adrift from everything reassuring and become outposts in a desolate spinal landscape. But a dream is indistinct, and fades; here they are with the unfading, scrupulous, fascinating detail of a Dutch Master. Silence hangs over every canvas and poetry is found in meticulous renderings of every form of decay. Not death, though – his scenes are alive. The natural world thrives and reclaims, people have been here recently (thought they might not have meant well), and the weather is about to change.Will Wiles – Author and journalist

‘I love Lee Madgwick’s eerie, Gothic and beautiful work – it has a strange capacity to be both moving and unnerving, and there’s no-one else quite like him.’ Sarah Perry – Writer and novelist

‘I just love Lee’s work. What an extraordinary painter’. Richard Osman – TV presenter, producer, comedian and writer

‘Lee Madgwick is one of my absolute favourite artists, and I get huge joy every day from having his work on my wall.’ Adam Kay – Author, script-writer and comedian

‘I love Lee’s work, and I’m extremely lucky that his images have provided the cover art for two of my books. Lee’s paintings are both beautiful and unsettling, conveying a powerful sense of the uncanny with quiet precision. The work is potent, haunting, strange, humorous and utterly distinctive.’ Paul Bassett Davies – Writer, director and producer

‘Memories long forgotten just out of reach of your conscious mind.’ Bob Mortimer – Comedian, presenter and actor

‘Lee specialises in juxtaposing abandoned, derelict urban scenes in secluded rural locations. Basically run-down estates in run-down estates. He somehow captures the sense of dark things happening behind closed doors, while presenting a perfectly chirpy looking, colourful landscape.’ Banksy – Street artist, political activist and film director

‘Beautiful and haunting’ Derren Brown – Mentalist, illusionist and author

‘..Madgwick’s paintings are at once quaint, savage, raw, toothy and sinister. They are cinematically dystopian. A pop culture tag line might describe them as George Orwell meets the colour of the Gorillaz, backed up by the menace of the League of Gentlemen, all portrayed with a pinch of Storm Thorgerson, and transported to Terrance Malick’s Badlands, albeit in Britain, of course… As far as images of Britain go, these are some of the funniest, finest and dangerously engaging I’ve seen. Capturing the power, glory, grime and infamy of a country is one thing, nailing the underlying mood and malevolence of our culture is another.’ Hayden Case – Journalist

‘A post apocalyptic Edward Hopper, where the views of the American province are opposed those of the English countryside. Houses ruined by the sloping roof, lush forests, streams, suspended atmospheres, frozen in an eternal instant.’ La Repubblica – Italian daily newspaper