Harry Pye was born in London in 1973. He graduated from Winchester School of Art in 1995 after completing a degree in Fine Art Pritmaking. As part of his course he undertook an artist placement with the sculptor Bruce McLean. From 1995 to 2000 he edited and published his own zine,
Harry Pye's Frank Magazine. He then curated exhibitions of other people's paintings for 5 years. At the age of 30 he began to paint again. Since then his paintings have been selected for shows at The Barbican, Calvert 22, The Discerning Eye Mall Gallery, The Bankside Gallery, The Creekside Art Gallery, festivals such as Elefest and Deptford X and The Royal Academy Summer Show. His paintings were also selected for two shows at Tate Modern ('
Save Our Souls' and '
Inside Job'). Pye paintings have appeared on record sleeves for Roland Gift, videos for Francis Macdonald, Neil Innes and Nigel Planer, posters on the London underground and on the cover of the Tate Staff Handbook. His work has also appeared in numerous publications including; The Times, The Guardian, The Evening Standard, Frieze, and Turps Banana. His collaborative exhibition with Jasper Joffe ('Joffe et Pye') got a rave review on BBC Radio 4. Speaking on Saturday Review, Ekow Eshun's response to the show was: "intense feelings about love, loneliness and fear, anxiety, desire and hope and ambition all came into play in these paintings. Very powerful I thought. What could have been fey, arch, or game playing was actually very warm." Pye was the winner of a Daily Mirror 'Paint Tony Blair' Competition judged by Gilbert and George. The Week magazine said of Harry's work: "Pye's apparent naivety is accompanied by a strong sense of construction and design. Their directness and humour are appealing." The critic Ana Finel Honigman described him as one of "London's premiere puckish artists and curators" whist the author Stephen Ellcock believes: "Harry Pye’s playful, skewed and slyly subversive visions of a brighter , better reality are the perfect antidote to a world of woe. His paintings are a delightful and, at times , poignant riposte to all the po-faced, cynical and joyless cultural landfill cluttering up the place." Pye had a solo show at the Thomas Cohn Gallery in Sao Paulo. His work has also been included in group shows at Tom Christoffersen's gallery and David Risley's gallery both in Denmark, The Hell gallery in Australia, and the Charlie Dutton Gallery in China. Later this year he will have a painting included in a show at The M Galleries in Washington, USA.
Artist statement:
"My paintings are about my feelings. I don't always paint alone - my paintings of people I love are often made in collaboration with people who have been my closest friends for decades. I paint to distract myself, to educate myself and to cheer myself up. The paintings are postcards to the world. I think a few of my paintings are sad and quite a few of the paintings are funny. Recently the critic Neal Brown told me my work was "compelling" because he felt it contained "fun, laughter, pleasure, poetic sentiment, intimacy, and bittersweet reflective melancholy." Last year I co-curated a group show called '
Nature' in Estonia with August Kannapu. I made a series of paintings of cows because I'm fascinated by the way they are seen as comical and worthless by some and worshipped like Gods by others. I'm interested in life's ironies and how life is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy to those who feel."
Above: Image One: '
William Blake and his Tyger' (2025) Acrylic on canvas credited to Harry Pye and Rowland Smith
Above: Image Two: '
Sometimes A Cigar Is Just A Cigar' (2026) A3 screenprint credited to Harry Pye and Chris Tosic
Above: Image Three: '
Whatever Works' credited to Harry Pye and Rowland Smith
Above: Image Four '
King Harold' credited to Harry Pye
Above: Image Five: '
Live Long and Prosper' credited to Harry Pye and Rowland Smith
Above: Image Six:
'Secretary Bird' (2021) 65cm x 90cm acrylic on canvas credited to Harry Pye
Above: Image Seven: '
Today Deptford, Tomorrow The World' (2026) acrylic on canvas 65cm by 90cm. Credited to Harry Pye and Rowland Smith
Above: Image Eight: '
I'm Joan Collins and You're Not' acrylic on canvas credited to Harry Pye and Rowland Smith
Above: Image Nine: '
Willy Wonka' (2021) Acrylic on canvas credited to Harry Pye
Above: Image Ten '
Flowers' (2023) 15cm by 21cm acrylic and marker pen on canvas
