b. 1972, Barrow-in-Furness, UK
Lives and works in Rochester, Kent, England
“To say that class doesn’t matter in Britian is like saying wine doesn’t matter in France….”
Nick Cohen
Nathan Eastwood is best known for his distinctive style of photo-based, social realist oil paintings. Through his paintings, he explores themes of identity and class while celebrating ordinary life. Eastwood draws inspiration from the Kitchen Sink Artists and Photo-Realist Painters of the 1950s & 70s. These paintings aim to reflect his social realities and are allegories for our everyday existence. It has been said that Eastwood is the Ken Loach of the painting world – which for the artist is a huge compliment. Eastwood further explains that “at certain moments, when making my bed, cooking my evening dinner, cleaning the bathroom, or sitting in a cafe, buying my groceries at the local shops, or waiting for a train, I think, yes, this is real life; this is what I know, so this is what I should make a painting about. Painting and my lived experience has become symbiotic for my painting practice”.
Eastwood meticulously translates his digital snapshot photos taken with his camera phone of his surroundings and ordinary people into stunningly highly rendered photorealist paintings on primed gesso panels = a man reading a newspaper, a woman reading a book at the train station, or a group of people lining up for free meals at a local church. These works captures the poetry of the everyday – taking the unremarkable and easily overlooked scenes, and places the viewer within intimate distance of his subjects. While these obsessive, intensely atmospheric and melancholic works recall the formal traits of photorealism, they also, on closer inspection, reveal loose brush marks and surface imperfections such as trapped dust and hair – as though the scene itself has transmuted into painting.
The curator Lucy von Goetz stated that “Eastwood’s practice employs painting as an analytical medium, scrutinising class structures and giving new weight to the term realism. His painting aim to be just this, real.”
Von Goetz Art
In 2014 Eastwood exhibited his painting titled 'Nico's Cafe' at the East London Painting Prize that won him the prize as the inaugural winner. As part of the award, he went on to have his first major solo exhibition at the Nunnery Gallery in 2014 and he was also awarded a generous sum of money to support his making of a new body of paintings for this solo exhibition. In 2015 Eastwood collaborated with Priseman Seabrook and curated the group exhibition Documentary Realism: Painting in the Digital Age, The Crypt at St Marylebone, London
In 2014 Eastwood worked and collaborated Alex Michon Director for the Transition Gallery and designed, organised and curated a group show titled ‘Towards a New Socio-real Painting’ which was intended to address questions about the relevance of social realist aesthetics today in a contemporary artworld and need for an aesthetic structure to continue with a critique on contemporary society, class and late capitalism through a visual art framing.
Eastwood has shown China, Poland, USA, Scotland, England. He has work in the collections of Anita Zabludowicz, (London), The Goldhill Family, (London), Priseman Seabrook Collection, UK, Yale Centre of British Art (USA), Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, (UK)
Born in Barrow-in-Furness, UK.Resides and works in Rochester, Kent, UK2009 MA Fine Art, Central Saint Martin’s School of Fine Art, (formally known as Byam Shaw), London, UK
2005 First Class BA Hons, Fine Art, Kent Institute of Art and Design, Canterbury, Kent
Solo Exhibitions
2017 My England, Sid Motion Gallery, London
2016 Laptop and Chips, SE9 Container Gallery, London
2014 Work/Recreation/Freedom, Nunnery Gallery, London
2014 Domestic Realism, (CBP) Crypt St Marylebone Church, London
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026 The Weight of Being: Vulnerability, Resilience and Mental Health in Art, Two Temple Place, London, UK
2026 Amici × Gertrude: Fall Apart | Come Together, Amici Studio, Hastings, East Sussex, UK
2024 Slow Painting (by CBP) The Plough Arts Centre, North Devon, UK
2024 Assembly (by CBP) The Old Gym, Rye Creative Centre, Kent, UK
2023 'X - Contemporary British Painting' Newcastle Contemporary Art, Newcastle, UK
2022 Vitalistic Fantasies, Elysium Gallery, Swansea, UK
2022 'Paradoxes' Contemporary British Painting, Quay Arts, Newport, Isle of Wight
2020 Yes/No: 32 Painters (virtual open studio), Contemporary British Painting, curated by Deb Covell, Paula MacArthur, and Judith Tucker.
2020 Me, Myself and I, Collyer Bristow Gallery, London, UK, curated by Rosalind Davis
2019 Contemporary British Painting, Norwich Cathedral, UK
2019 Made in Britain, The National Museum in Gdańsk, Poland
2018 New Painting: Contemporary British Painting, Marylebone Church Cyrpt, London
2017 The Long Count, Von Goetz Art, London
2017 Contemporary Masters from Britain, Yantai Art Museum; Artall Gallery & Jiangsu Art Gallery, Nanjing; Tianjin Academy of Fine Art, China
2017 Contemporary Masters form East of England, 36 works, The Cut, Halesworth, Suffolk
2017 Silence Un-scene, Arthouse Lewisham, London
2016 Aviary, Transition Gallery, London
2016 Selected Works from the Seabrook Collection, The Minories, Colchester, UK
2015 London Painting Survey, Blackhorse Lane, Studios, London
2015 Anti-Social Realism, Charlie Smith Gallery, London
2015 Documentary Realism: Painting in the Digital Age, The Crypt at St Marylebone, London
2015 Present Tense: The Swindon Collection, Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, UK
2014 Contemporary British Painting, the Crypt at St Marylebone, London
2014 @PaintBritain, Ipswich Museum, UK
2014 Priseman-Seabrook Collection, Huddersfield Art Gallery, UK
2014 Towards a New Socio-painting, Transition Gallery, London, UK
2014 The East London Painting Prize, Nunnery Gallery, London (the Inaugural winner)
2014 Signal Over Noise / Don't Split the Focus, Walthamstov, E17, London
2014 This Year's Model, Studio 1.1, Shoreditch, London, E2,
2013 Contemporary British Painting, the Crypt at St Marylebone, London
2013 Zwitgeist Arts Project, ASC Studios, London
2013 Threadneedle Prize (finalist), Mall Galleries, London
2013 Royal Academy Summer Show, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2012 John Moores Painting Prize 2012, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
2012 Occupied Realism, Portman Gallery, London
2011 Platform C's Emergent Art Show, Vyner Street Gallery, Vyner Street, London
Collections
Anita Zabludowicz, London, UK
Goldhill Family, London, UK
Priseman Seabrook Collection, UK
Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, UK
Yale Centre of British Art, USA
Talks/ Panel Discussions
2017 Artists’ Panel Discussion (With Nicholas Balmfort), Silence Un-scene, Arthouse London
2017 Nathan Eastwood: Solo show, My England - in conversation with Matt Price (Anomie Publishers), Sid Motion Gallery, London
2017 Nathan Eastwood: Solo show, My England - Contemporary British Painting Friends Programme, interview by Matthew Krishanu, Sid Motion Gallery, London
2014 Nathan Eastwood: Solo show, Work/Recreation/Freedom – in conversation with Matt Price (Anomie Publishers), Nunnery Gallery, London
2014 Artists’ Panel Discussion (With Cara Nahaul), Showing Painting, Nunnery gallery, London
Awards
2021 Priseman Seabrook Prize - Inaugural winner
2014 East London Painting Prize - inaugural winner
2013 The Threadneedle Prize - shortlisted
2012 John Moores Painting Prize - shortlisted
2008 South Square Trust Scholarship (Masters Scholarship)
2005 Outstanding Achievement in BA Fine Art (HONS)
PUBLICATIONS AND PRESS
2024 David Sullivan Interviews Nathan Eastwood, Priseman Seabrook Collection
2023 X – Contemporary British Painting, Anniversary Exhibition catalogue, ISBN 9781739781835
2022 Vitalistic Fantasies at Elysium Gallery, Elysium Gallery, Swansea (on-line catalogue)
2022 Paradoxes: 52 Painters, Quay Arts, Isle of Wight
2019 Contemporary British Painting: An Exhibition of 34 Painters, Norwich Cathedral, UK (on-line catalogue)
2019 Made in Britain, Exhibition catalogue, National Museum, Gdansk, Poland, ISBN 9788363185909
2018 New Painting: Contemporary British Painting, (on-line catalogue)
2018 The Anomie Review of Contemporary British Painting, Edited by Matt Price, Anomie, ISBN 9781910221167
2017 Contemporary Masters from the East of England, Priseman-Seabrook Collection: Exhibition catalogue
2017 The Yantai Art Museum, Contemporary Masters from Britain…
2017 Young Artist to Watch - Nathan Eastwood, By Ben Austin, FAD Magazine
2017 My England, Exhibition Press, Sid Motion Gallery
2015 Contemporary Art’s Hottest Talent, The Angel resident magazine, January 2015, Issue 28
2015 Documentary Realism: Painting in the Digital Age, Robert Priseman
2015 The Angel resident magazine
2015 Nathan Eastwood: A Quiet Revolution, Essey by Robert Priseman, 2015
2014 Contemporary Art’s Hottest Talent, Written by Mark Kebble, The Resident
2014 Work/Recreation/Freedom, The Nunnery, exhibition catalogue
2014 Painting the People, Written by Alex Michon (Garageland Reviews)
2014 Priseman-Seabrook Collection of 21st Century British Painting, ISBN 1514186772
2014 Domestic Realism, Garageland 17: Society, Transition Gallery, London (UK)
2014 East London Painting Prize, Exhibition catalogue
2012 John Moores Painting Prize 2012, Exhibition catalogue, National Museums Liverpool, ISBN 9781902700465