Chris Sharp Gallery is pleased to announce our second solo exhibition with the British, Glasgow-based painter, Merlin James, entitled Singer. 

Ahead of forthcoming surveys at Camden Art Centre, London and Secession, Vienna, both of which will span over four decades of work, this exhibition consists of paintings made in the last 12 months. The titular work, Singer, continues James’s interest in figures performing in various ways, with the implication of painting itself as a performance or act. Imagery features, among other things, piers, the sea, coastlines, trees by water, the sun, and the moon. The often stark economy of mark-making is complemented by James’s use of ash, sawdust and hair. Mood ranges from desolate to serene, autumnal to wintery. Light shades from milky to crepuscular. 

Merlin James (b. 1960, Cardiff, UK) lives and works in Glasgow, Scotland. Recent solo exhibitions include See Through, P420, Bologna, 2026; Hobby Horse, Sikkema Malloy Jenkins, New York, 2025; Maureen Paley, London, UK, 2024; Some Steps, Kunstsaele, Berlin, 2023; Arrivals, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles, 2023; Merlin James: Piers and Other Structures, 20 Albert Road, Glasgow, 2023; Far and Near, Anton Kern Gallery, New York, 2022; Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, 2022; Window, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, 2021; Merlin James, P420, Bologna, 2020; and River, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, 2020. 

Recent group exhibitions include: Merlin James/Edouard Vuillard, Pusher, London; Muna Island, Chris Sharp, Los Angeles; Outside, KARMA, Maine (curated by Matthew Higgs); Notte, GAM, Torino; Thinking of Somewhere Else, The Approach, London; Salon, Lismore Castle, Ireland (curated by Matthew Higgs); Analog, Anton Kern, New York; Glawr, Hannah Hoffman Gallery, Los Angeles, 2025; 15 years, P420, Bologna, IT., 2025; Elegy, As It Stands, Los Angeles, CA, 2025; Magicians less prone to mental disorders than other artists, finds research, Altman Siegel, San Francisco, 2024; Voyage, Morena di Luna, Hove, 2024; Like the light at the beginning of the world, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, 2024; Double Shuffle, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, 2023; Landschaft, Galerie Khoshbakht, Cologne, 2023; I MET, Spazio Mutina, Fiorano, 2023; I’ve never met anyone quite like you before, Queens Park Railway Club, Glasgow, 2023; To be a giant and keep quiet about it, Margot Samel, New York, 2022; Moderato Cantabile, Stoppenbach & Delestre, London, 2022; Mixing It Up: Painting Today, Hayward Gallery, London, 2021; Prunella Clough, A small thing edgily, June, Berlin, 2021; Double-M, Double-X, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, 2020; and Slow Painting, Leeds City Art Gallery, 2020. 

He is currently preparing a solo survey of 40 years of work at Camden Art Centre, London, opening January 2027, and another solo at Secession, Vienna, opening June 2027. 

James’s work can be found in the following collections: Arts Council England, UK; Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, NO, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, US; Boxes Museum, Shunde, CN; British Council, UK; Brooklyn Museum, US; The Bunker Artspace, Miami, Florida, US; Colby Art Museum, Maine, US; Dallas Museum of Art, US; Kistefos Museum, Jevnaker, NO; Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, FR; National Museum of Wales, UK; HUA Art Museum, Shenzhen, CN; San Antonio Art Museum, US; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, US; Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing, CN; and Tate, London, UK.