Jack Sutherland Uses Comedy and Tragedy to Unpick White Masculinity

“White masculinity is under rightful scrutiny at the moment, and I believe that this is an important and interesting subject.” The young painter creates vivid self-portraits that question his place in the world, rendered in surreal colours and laced with a healthy dose of humour.

Jack Sutherland paints self-portraits, but you’d be forgiven for not recognising him at first, or even second, glance. In one portrait, a nude male back is exposed from behind, with fat bulging around the thick buttocks. Sutherland was inspired by his own experience of sitting on the edge of the bed and feeling his own body, fat deposits and all, move with him. The painting conveys a heightened sense of awareness, and reflects the interiority of the mind as it connects and disconnects from the body. Nude skin is angrily, exaggeratedly pink in Sutherland’s work—an acknowledgement of his own status as a white male painter. 

A recent graduate from the Slade’s MFA, he has taken up residence with the Elephant Lab, which offers studio space and all the artist materials that one could wish for. Selected in partnership with New Contemporaries, he tackles subjects as diverse as Brexit, car interiors and Greek tragedy.