Conor Collins

Conor Collins is a self-taught Manchester artist whose figurative paintings use portraiture, text and materials loaded with cultural and political meaning to examine power, identity, queer history, celebrity and the politics of looking. His work takes familiar images and gives them something harder to ignore.

Collins is currently presenting his solo exhibition *To See and Be Seen* at HOME Manchester, responding to the Queer Up North archive and the city’s queer histories. His work has been exhibited internationally and in major UK institutions, including BOZAR Brussels, the House of Commons and Scarborough Art Gallery. He won the START Art Prize, with the resulting exhibition presented at BOZAR Brussels, and has been shortlisted or selected for the Aesthetica Art Prize, VAA Artist of the Year and New Light.

His work has been featured by TIME, The Independent, The Economist, BBC and The Guardian, and is held in collections including those of Sir Ian McKellen, Stephen Fry and Giorgio Armani.

Collins is interested in the uncomfortable space between looking and being looked at: who gets seen, who gets remembered, and who gets to control the image.

For Collins, a portrait is never simply a likeness. It is a negotiation between the ...

Conor is a self taught artist, with a degree in Opera from the Royal Northern College of Music - UK

2026
To See and Be Seen - HOME, UK (Solo)
Under Our Skin - Brixton Tate, UK (Group)

2025
Art as a response to Mental Health, International (Group) Online
Queer Art 4.0, Embassy of Mexico, London, UK

2024
Manchester Open (Group) HOME , UK

2023
Art as a response to Mental Health (Group) Doncaster Art Fair, UK

2022
Art Out - Queering the Pandemic (Group) Gulfport Library, Florida, USA

2021
Glocal Emotions (Group) Motorenhalle, Dresden, Germany
New Light Art Prize Tour (Group) Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery, Carlisle, UK
New Light Art Prize Tour (Group) The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
New Light Art Prize Tour (Group) Bankside Gallery, London, UK

2020
New Light Art Prize Tour (Group) Scarborough Art Gallery, Scarborough, UK

2019
Superbia (Group), Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK

2017
Shape Open (Group) Ecology Pavilion Mile End, London , UK
Celeste (Group) Bargehouse OXO Tower, London, UK

2016
Winter Pride (Group) Islington Arts Factory, London, UK
Freedom to Donate (Solo) The House of Commons, London, UK

2012
OutsideIn (Group) Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK
British Artists (Group) Cloud Gallery Fine Art, Chester, UK

2011
Perspective (Group) Curious Duke Gallery, London, UK