James Klinge

About

James Klinge (b. 1983) is an artist from Glasgow, Scotland that brings an exciting contemporary approach to traditional forms of portraiture and figurative painting, specialising his technique with hand cut stencils and spray paint. 

The subjects in his paintings aim to tell a story whether from historic influence or based on current affairs through his unique style and execution not only in his works on canvas, but also in his ability to work on a larger scale for his mural creations.

Previously, Klinge had worked successfully anonymously under the pseudonym “Klingatron” which he decided to retire at the start of 2016 for personal and professional reasons. His work saw a dramatic change at this time as well bringing a combination of intricacy and detail from his work delivered from his stencils complimented what he describes as “controlled chaos” from expressive mark making from his palette knife. Whilst inspired by the classical masters of figurative painting, Klinge has dedicated the past two decades developing his control with spray paint to manipulate it in an unseen unique way. From this his figurative and portrait paintings leave the viewer in amazement through texture and striking marks that they are looking at an oil painting rather than something straight from a can.

Through this unmatched execution of painting that has allowed James Klinge to exhibit his paintings internationally it is no surprise that he is a rising star in contemporary painting.