Duncan Jago

Duncan Jago, professionally known as Mr. Jago, is a British painter with his roots in the Bristol graffiti scene in the 1990’s, initiating the Scrawl movement, a selective group of street artists that chose members based on their abilities with lines, movement, and narrative composition. This culminated in his inclusion in the pioneering 1999 book Scrawl. His passion for graffiti pushed him to formally study illustration at the University of the West of England and develop his style, which, while initially illustrative and representative, has evolved over the years toward deeper expression through greater abstraction, and a shift in focus away from direct references and towards vaguer forms.

Jago uses both acrylic and spray paints on relatively large canvases. Sometimes these canvases can be combined together to form one large mural as in Nimrod Wreck 1-4. A love of nature and the cosmos inspired Jago’s development from illustrative works to expressive, abstract, nonrepresentational paintings that demonstrate an adept and mature management of colour – Jago’s work with colour can be reminiscent of the Colour Field style of the 40’s and 50’s, developed by Rothko, especially when combined with landscape imagery as opposed to gestural brushstrokes.

Despite the riot of bright and vivid shades that sometimes give the viewer the impression that they are looking into a kaleidoscope, an underlying sense of maturity and stewardship is omnipresent through Jago’s work – it is never simply a wanton mish-mash of colours, but rather a measured exploration into the full spectrum of light and human perception, combined with a harking back to the natural world, which is never far in Jago’s work, demonstrated by the forms that exist within nature making appearances with increasing frequency throughout his oeuvre. Clues to the natural world are reflected not only in the forms but the titles of the works, such as Mineral Information Study.

Mr Jago has exhibited solo around the U.K., Italy, and France. Jago has participated in group exhibitions around the U.K., Hong Kong, Japan, Western Europe and the U.S. He currently lives and works in London.

“Mr Jago often describes his painting as a therapeutic practice, which enables him to work through his anxieties to do with where the human race is heading as a species and the effect that modernity has had on the environment. About the body of work he has produced for Twr y Felin, Mr Jago says: “This body of work came as a relief. My obsessions with everything that is going wrong gave way to celebration of a deeply beautiful part of the world and the legends that inform its unique culture. St David’s marked me like the waves and the wind have etched the coastline’s ancient rocks.”