Nathan Eastwood

Nathan Eastwood (b. 1972, London) is a London based artist. He graduated from Byam Shaw School of Art in 2009. Eastwood is the winner of the 2014 East London Painting Prize and has been selected for the Threadneedle Prize, Mall Galleries, London, 2013; John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 2012.

Eastwood draws inspiration from the Kitchen Sink Painters of the 1950s – his minimal, monochromatic enamel paintings aim to reflect his social realities and are allegories for our everyday existence. Eastwood depicts banal moments of day to day life in meticulous detail, allowing us to question our social conditions, and the larger implications of our social standing. Through truthful revelations of both subject and process, the making of work in a domestic space is emphasised. Using a camera phone to capture the imagery Eastwood is able to present an unremarkable moment which places the viewer in the room while his subjects are unaware – non confronting, yet firmly placed in the present. These obsessive, intensely atmospheric and melancholic paintings operate within the conceptual framework of photo-realism, yet the works reveal loose brush marks and surface imperfections such as trapped dust and hair under a seemingly shiny surface. In this way the paintings are fictional rather than strictly photo-realistic.