Highly detailed, Ian Francis’ art is a mixture of abstraction and figuration, composed by the elements of both painting and drawing. Multi-layered and highly contrasted, Ian Francis’ paintings generate a feeling of a seemingly multi-dimensional platform with blackness and empty space surrounding the portrayed scenes and characters. As a mixed-media artist, Ian Francis uses a range of mediums – from acrylic and oil to charcoal and ink – to create his distinct, contemporary works.

About his work the artist tells the following:
"I have been fascinated by images for as long as I can remember. Despite this, the internet presents a paradox for me—on one hand, the endless number of images I encounter is inspiring, and on the other, overwhelming.
Over the past 25 years, it has evolved from being a research tool to becoming the core of my work, while also being an integrated and unavoidable aspect of our society. For me, painting serves as a way to make sense of this flood of information.
I’m fascinated by the repetition and interconnection of images
The way ideas can link together without necessarily having any direct connection. A peculiar sea of the beautiful, the terrible, the serious, and the trivial, creating its own tide.
My artistic focus centers around the unnatural—screen-constructed realities and worlds from films, TV shows, video games, and the internet—alongside the looming threat of everything falling apart.
I am interested in delving into how popular culture becomes entangled in the overwhelming sense of impending apocalypse and collapse.
The fascination with large-scale catastrophe and the disintegration of everything might stem from my own fortunate existence in what may be one of the safest times and places in human history. A safety that feels increasingly fragile. Concepts like climate change, natural disasters, war, and terrorism are undeniably real and captivating. At the same time, their scale makes them difficult to grasp.
Confronted with these serious issues, I am at times shaken by my own appreciation of trivial entertainment.
Perhaps this paradox reflects a characteristic of our current reality, where immediate safety measures against uncontrollable threats lead to the creation of escapist fantasies.
Through my paintings, my goal is to weave together these seemingly irreconcilable ideas and explore the relationship between them."

EDUCATION

2001 BA, University of the West of England, UK