Gary James McQueen

Castle Fine Art is proud to introduce Gary James McQueen to its portfolio of artists. Celebrating fantastical form by exquisitely blending the two dimensional and the digital, Gary James McQueen crafts romantic, timeless tales and exotic worlds.

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Gary James McQueen’s partnership with Castle Fine Art marks a new chapter in his artistic journey.

For the first time ever, the artist has created four hand-signed limited-edition silkscreens, which are exclusively available from Castle Fine Art. The new collection, Gilded Skull I, captivates viewers with Gary’s central concepts of reimagined form, mythical opulence and classical antiquity.

It is the first time we see the artist render his 3D digital sculptures into 2D mixed-media silkscreens, translating the dynamism of his lenticulars into a static limited-edition. Honouring his traditional artistic principles and using the finest materials, he has pushed the boundaries of time-honoured printing techniques and digital design in one to create this truly extraordinary collection.

Gary James McQueen is no stranger to darkness. His ornate designs speak not just to a gifted instinct for melancholic romance, but also to a history of family addiction, domestic violence and tragic early bereavement.

Growing up on a council estate in a working-class suburb of east London, Gary’s mum was a taxi driver, whilst his dad suffered from diabetes and was prone to violent outbursts. Aged 5, he witnessed his father’s death from a car accident outside the family home, an event that remains imprinted on his memory today.

Faced with the challenges of his everyday life, Gary needed an escape. It came in the form of his uncle, Lee Alexander McQueen. Lee would visit Gary armed with the latest fantastical horror films which transported Gary to fantastical worlds. As the pair watched, they would sketch out ideas for characters, stories and places.

Much of Gary James McQueen’s technical skillset comes from his junior days in publishing. His first job was working in a print and typesetting firm where he learnt about print production and taught himself to use illustration software.

Needing a break and a new challenge, he was invited to cut his teeth in fashion at Alexander McQueen’s menswear department where he worked for seven years, finally as head textile designer.

Using clothing as a 3D canvas to present his ideas, he has carried this experience of photography and textiles into his artistic storytelling. By sketching a storyboard before he begins creating, Gary James McQueen’s lenticular artworks are not just a series of images, they are a visual narrative.

Having worked with lenticulars intensely for over 15 years, Gary James McQueen’s technical and creative understanding of this medium is unparalleled. He combines the traditional and the technological to create a totally unique visual experience that is neither fully two dimensional nor digital. Though the canvas is flat, Gary’s chosen medium, the lenticular, creates a three-dimensional illusion of volume, depth and transience.

Choosing to challenge the limits of art and digital technology as one, Gary leverages his traditional skills in illustration, photography and lighting, alongside pioneering art technologies, to create his lenticulars. He sketches the dynamic image before sculpting its several layers using a 3D software.

He considers every detail of the artwork, cutting no corners, which draws the viewer into a dark, exotic and fantastical world that shifts and changes with an unerring and troublesome beauty. 

One of his most recognised works to date, Gary James McQueen’s lenticular ‘Savage Beauty’ is comprised of two separate images: a personal portrait of Alexander McQueen, taken by Gary (2008) in the McQueen studio, and a golden skull artwork with photo-manipulated images of Tower Bridge. Working together to blend the boundaries of fashion and technology, Gary originally created the artwork for the invitation to Alexander McQueen’s 2009 womenswear show. The image has gone on to encapsulate his legacy as an iconic British designer.

Another lenticular work, ‘Eternal Bloom’, is a mesmerising piece that merges the fragility of nature with the permanence of art. The skull, constructed of delicate flowers and gold-leaf accents, symbolises the cycle of life and death, with each bloom appearing to both thrive and decay within the structure. It was created by recording 10 shots of real flowers as they slowly died. The image became synonymous with ‘McQueen’, the BAFTA-nominated biographical documentary film about the life of Lee Alexander McQueen.