”Contrast gives life. I think a painting needs life.” Meet painter Rose Wylie, who, at the age of 91, is guided by instinct rather than rules. She embraces contrasts, uncertainty, and difference, seeing art as a living process where curiosity and contradictions shape the work.
In her Kent studio, Rose Wylie is surrounded by towering piles of discarded newspaper, brushes and paint. The space is unpretentious but perfectly suited to an artist who has spent decades following her own intuition rather than convention: “I used to crush bricks with a hammer until it made powder. Different coloured bricks, and I got different coloured powder, which actually equals pigments in the artistic worlds,” she says of her childhood: “So I thought, well… That’s what I’ll do. I’ll be an artist.”
Rose Wylie finds inspiration in anything from the way light hits the house of her neighbour to red carpet photos of celebrities: “It’s a wish to keep something, which I’ve liked looking at”, she says and continues: “But at the same time I don’t like possession. I’m very conflicted as a person. I often think one thing, and the moment later, I think something opposite to that.”
This contrast is evident in Wylie’s works, but rather than resolving these tensions, she welcomes them: “I love difference,” she says. “I do not think that there is a particular right way to do something.” Words often appear in Wylie’s paintings, not primarily for their meaning, but for their visual qualities. Like lines, shapes, or colours, letters become elements within the composition. Everything is part of the painting’s life: “There’s always something that’s a thorn in the picture. I don’t mind that because I like thorns,” she continues: “I like something to work with.”
For Rose Wylie, art is not about arriving at certainty, a destination. It is about remaining open to surprises, contradiction, and the endless possibilities of seeing: “It’s no good doing the same painting all the time.”
Rose Wylie (b. 1934, Kent, UK) is a British painter. She is known for her uniquely recognisable, colourful, and exuberant compositions. Wylie studied at Folkestone and Dover School of Art, Kent, England, and the Royal College of Art, London, from which she graduated in 1981. In recent years, she has had solo presentations at venues including the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, University of the Arts, Philadelphia (2012); Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, England (2012); Tate Britain, London (2013); Haugar kunstmuseum, Tønsberg, Norway (2013); Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, Germany (2014); Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2015); Space K, Seoul (2016); Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales (2016); Turner Contemporary, Margate, England (2016); Serpentine Gallery, London (2017); Plymouth Arts Centre and The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art, England (an exhibition that traveled to Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Cornwall, England); Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain (2018); and The Gallery at Windsor, Vero Beach, Florida (2020). Wylie is the recipient of the John Moores Painting Prize, presented by the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, in 2014, and the same year was also elected a senior academician to the Royal Academy of Arts. In 2015, she received the Royal Academy of Arts’ Charles Wollaston Award. In 2018, she received the South Bank Sky Arts Award in recognition of her exhibition at the Serpentine Galleries the previous year. She was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for her services to art. Wylie’s work can be found in prominent collections throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, including Arario Museum, Seoul; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Jerwood Art Foundation, United Kingdom; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; Portland Museum of Art, Maine; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Space K, Seoul; Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, Germany; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent, Belgium; Tate, United Kingdom; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland. Most recently, Rose Wylie had a solo exhibition, The Picture Comes First, at the Royal Academy in London, UK.
Rose Wylie was interviewed by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen at her studio in Kent, UK, April 2026.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard
Edited and produced by Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen
Music via Upright:
Nostalgic Twinkly by Jonas Struck, Peter Rockwell and Asger Wilde
One After Another by Harvey Wade and Toby Marsden
Orchestral Drama by Jerzy Matukis
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2026
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