Megan Menzies

Megan Menzies’ practice explores the poetry of the everyday through dreamlike scenes shaped by memory and involuntary emotion. Fleeting observations play a central role, as her work shifts between perspectives and scales, using cropping and repetition to suggest the fragmented nature of recollection, where moments resurface unexpectedly and meaning alters over time. Beginning with a prolonged process of drawing in charcoal, Menzies builds narratives through visual association before translating them into paint. Translucent layers of oil and glazing create surfaces that seem to shimmer, reinforcing the hazy, dreamlike quality of her imagery. Throughout her work, blushing tones of pink and green recur as both palette and metaphor, drawing on the blush as an involuntary bodily reaction – an expression of sensitivity and emotional exposure – positioning painting itself as an irrepressible expression of feeling.

Menzies was born in 1995 in Essex, United Kingdom. She earned a BA in History of Art from the University of Bristol (2016) and an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art (2022). She was a Now Introducing Prizewinner at Studio West Gallery, London (2022), and is a two-time recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (2021, 2025). In 2025, she completed a residency at Palazzo Monti, Brescia, Italy. Recent solo exhibitions include Glimpse at LKIF Gallery, Seoul (2024) and TINTO at La Causa Gallery, Madrid (2022). Selected group exhibitions include the John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition at Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (2025); KIAF Art Fair with LKIF Gallery (2025, 2024); Minestrone at Palazzo Monti, Brescia (2025); Voyage Voyage II at The Platform Gallery, Antwerp (2024); Embraced at Rhodes Gallery, London (2024); and NOW (online showcase) at Huxley-Parlour, London (2023). Menzies lives and works in London.