Jonathan
Wateridge

Jonathan
Wateridge

British, born in 1972


The hyper-realist paintings of Jonathan Wateridge bring together film, photography and painting in what the artist calls "elaborate fictions with visible seams". His paintings have the trappings of a real occurrence but for the most part are entirely fabricated.

Obsessed with detail, the artist constructs full-scale film sets in his London studio before reproducing the scenes on canvas. He meticulously selects each item of scenery and the actors present. Inspired by the apocalyptic vision of Los Angeles in films, Wateridge creates often catastrophic situations, frozen in time and space, leaving the viewer to imagine the story behind each detail making up these photographic paintings.

The artist’s works in the Pinault Collection were presented at the Palazzo Grassi at the "Le Monde vous appartient" (“The World Belongs to You”) exhibition (2011-2012).