REVERIE: Lily Macrae

4 February - 1 March 2023

The &Gallery is pleased to present, Reverie, a debut solo exhibition from Scottish artists Lily Macrae.

The exhibition features a collection of works which draw inspiration from sketches, film stills, and Old Masters paintings. Familiar motifs are cropped, altered and illuminated out of the darkness, as the artist strives to find a certain moment of clarity within the process of making.
These tableaux vivants depict the subjects supposedly unaware of the gaze of the viewer, in dreamlike states of introspection, exploring the potential figuration holds to draw the viewer into the work. Borrowing from a myriad of sources; some imagery used within the work is searched for with intention, others stumbled across unintentionally, but all collected by Macrae to be used as a force to reimagine notions of narrative and storytelling.
“I want the viewer to draw more from each work the longer you look at it, finding a quietness and a sense of stillness, to pause. I want the works to hold the feeling that they are on a precipice, the edge of something that is about to happen. This theme of being just out of sight or out of reach is something that constantly reoccurs throughout my work. Both in the process, and the dreamlike transient nature of the subjects who seem to be in some transformative state.”
Using an almost subtractive painting method to create form, the surface is covered initially in one colour and then removed. Wiping back through with brushes and rags, the artist is searching for how the light falls, forms and emanates from within. Painting itself is used simultaneously as an act of excavation and construction.
- Lily Macrae, Reverie study no.2
- Lily Macrae, Reverie study no.3
Lily Macrae was born in Edinburgh in 1994 and is now based in Glasgow, working from her studio in Govan. She studied at Edinburgh College of Art and graduated in 2016.

Join us in the gallery on Saturday 25 March for an informal Q&A with Lily.

Book your free ticket here.