Florence Reekie,
You Had to Be There (2025)

Florence Reekie (b.1991) is a figurative oil painter from Scotland. Expectation, subversion, and decadence are important themes in Reekie’s work. Her paintings are often contemporary scenes drawing upon classical impressions and techniques. She is interested in developing ideas around perception, iconography and coding within compositions while experimenting with the materiality of paint.

Historically painters have used drapery as a means of bringing being and movement into compositions, by using material and only alluding to the human interaction Florence is able to deal with complicated themes in her work. An interest in drapery as not mere staging for the subject helps her to navigate her pieces. Fabric is often overlooked in both paintings and day to day life, simple crumpled laundry highlighted in paint suddenly take on a new resonance.