Alex Beattie’s works are hand-drawn mythical dreamscapes, produced in silkscreen. He draws inspiration from many sources, from Byzantine mosaic to socialist poster art, Hokusai to videogames. Ultimately his work aims to capture some aspect of how it feels to be human: how we experience the universe, and how we look for meaning in it.
His academic background is in textile design, but his creative practice spans a range of disciplines, including fabric print, paint, mosaic and digital. However, over the last few years, Alex’s creative focus has been print on paper, drawing on his background in multiple disciplines, bringing them together in the development of his print process.
His works consist of multiple layers of hand-pulled transparent pigment, creating prints with dense, vibrant, jewel-like colour. Seven individual screens are typically used as a starting point for each of his prints, and the different overprint combinations between those screens allows a whole spectrum of colours to work with.
He values the manual screen-printing process for the life, texture and lusciousness it gives to the work, and the physical process itself; the flex between meditative calm and excitement; the joy of finding the unexpected; and the sheer messy pleasure of it. Each work is entirely hand-drawn, and the individual drawn elements collaged together to create a final image with a bold, graphic unity.
Alex is based in London, and prints in a shared studio in Dalston.