Biography
John Atherton (b. 1977, Glasgow) is a Scottish-born artist based in Sweden. Raised in a household immersed in portraiture, both his parents, Barry Atherton and Linda Atherton, were portrait painters; he grew up surrounded by images of people, often stacked many canvases deep, forming crowds of faces each carrying their own story. Occasionally, he would encounter these same sitters in everyday life, though they remained unaware of his connection to them. This uncanny experience of living among painted lives, both intimate and estranged, became a catalyst for his later artistic research.
Atherton studied Graphic Design at The Glasgow School of Art before moving to London, where he worked as a screen printer, designer, curator, and assistant to international artists. He went on to complete an MA at the Royal College of Art (2017–2019). Following graduation, he was awarded the Clifford Chance Purchase Prize and selected for the Travers Smith CSR Art Programme.
Overview
Atherton’s paintings and print works operate within the visual language of modern abstraction—precise compositions of color, geometry, and surface that reward sustained looking. Counter to expectation, however, this practice does not emerge directly from the traditions of abstract art but instead from the portraiture and commemorative imagery of anonymous 1980s school yearbooks. These yearbooks, without covers or contextual framing, presented only rows of faces with names, devoid of stories, histories, or futures. Anyone encountering them was compelled to invent new lives for these individuals.
The yearbook, an object of remembrance and transition, serves as a foundation for Atherton’s exploration of memory, ritual, and identity. As a record of a collective rite of passage, it embodies both nostalgia and distance, symbolizing a moment of departure toward an unknown future. Drawing on print-based methods and a design-led sensibility, Atherton transforms these associations into abstract compositions that carry the weight of memory without depicting it directly.
Series:
Nostalgia of Distance
Historically, distant landscapes within portraiture offered sitters a backdrop of contemplative longing. Atherton adapts this device by inviting viewers to read his abstract works as if looking through a picture-frame window. The absent sitter is replaced by the viewer’s own projection: personal memories and imagined narratives unfold in response to the ambiguity of the abstract field.
Heirlooms: A Collection of Almost Objects
Traditionally, heirlooms are preserved objects, carefully kept, passed down, and charged with personal history. Atherton’s Almost Objects explore a different register: forms that misremember, hovering at the edge of recognition. Suggesting cups, sleeves, keys, or keepsakes, they deliberately withhold full identity. Their incompleteness is not a sign of loss but an opening, an invitation to imagination. Where an heirloom demands faithful remembrance, the almost object invites invention.
Contact
john.atherton@network.rca.ac.uk
instagram.com/johnathertonstudio
Education
(2017-2019) Royal College of Art, MA, Fine Art, Print
(1995-1999) Glasgow School of Art, BA, Visual Communications
(1994) Leith School of Art, Foundation level
Selected Exhibitions
Current:
Paper
Birmingham City University
11 Sep 2025 – 03 Oct 2025 8am – 8pm
Parkside Gallery
2024
Affordable Art Fair, Stockholm
Sweden Design Days, Malmō
Affordable Art Fair Pop-Up, Nordic Art Agency, Malmō
Auction, Nordic Art Agency, Malmō
Collective Exhibition, Marie Gallery 5, Malta
2023
Nostalgia of Distance Box Set Launch, Nordic Art Agency, Malmō
Nostalgia of Distance, Nordic Art Agency, Malmō (Solo)
2022
Summer Exhibition, Nordic Art Agency, Malmō
Stripped, Galleria Azur, Madrid
Seeing Abstraction, Galleria Azur, Madrid
2021
Summer Exhibition, Jealous Gallery, London
Homecoming, Galleri Revolt, Boras (Solo)
Hot Sheet Expo, the Department Store, London
2020
An Absent Presence, Galleri SM, Ulricehamn (Solo)
Lures, Tension Fine Art, London
2019
Clifford Chance Purchase Prize, London
Travers Smith, CSR Art Programme, London
Quivering Horizons, Berwick Upon Tweed
What A Relief, CGP Gallery, London
Images Can Be, The Crypt Gallery, London
Publications
2023
Nostalgia of Distance Box Set Launch, Nordic Art Agency, Malmō
2020
Exhibition article, Boras Tidning
Hot Sheet Expo, Exhibition Publication
Exhibition article, Ulricehamns Tidning
Spring, bluebee Magazine
2019
Clifford Chance Purchase Prize, Exhibition Publication
Travers Smith, CSR Art Programme, Exhibition Publication
Talks
Nordic Art Agency Podcast: Nostalgia Of Distance
Artist Talk, Nordic Art Agency, Malmö
Nordic Art Agency Podcast: Summer Exhibition
Artist Talk, University for the Creative Arts, Farnham
Artist Talk, University of Gloucestershire
Building An Artist Residency, Royal College of Art, London