Andrew Litten

Andrew Litten (b.1970, UK) is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist who currently works and lives in his studio in Fowey, Cornwall. Litten’s art grapples with vulnerability and anxiety, and examines poetic themes of loving, hurting and mourning. Characterised by a rife intensity, Litten’s portraits represent the coalescence of dependence, breakdown, faith, and responsibility. By drawing attention to fears rather than hiding from them, Litten urges viewers to confront our attraction to — and repulsion from — what makes us uncomfortable. 

 

Litten is an unguarded artist, exploring complex and harsh psychological states of the contemporary condition through a multifaceted body of work. His production ranges from large-scale figurative paintings and bronze sculptures to mixed media works with varied materials like traditional gouache and oil paint, as well as found objects like hair and screws. 

 

Dropping out of art college as a teenager finding it restrictive and claustrophobic, Litten is inspired by a contrasting sense of freedom. Always finding ways to breathe vitality and action into his paintings, Litten assembles, collages, and scores textures into his canvases. Manipulating his materials creates an energetic dialogue between him and his media. 

 

Through colourful, broad brushstrokes, Litten produces portraits with emotional depth, aiming to create “art that speaks of the love, anger, loss, personal growth and the private confusions we all experience in our lives. To create stories of authenticity that compress a sense of endurance of the human spirit.”