Niall MacCrann: Someone's Firebombed McQuaid's Pharmacy

About the artist

Niall MacCrann is a painter-printmaker based at St Barnabas Press in Cambridge. He studied MA Fine Art and Printmaking at Cambridge School of Art, graduating with distinction, and previously completed a PhD in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester. His work centres on the flesh and blood of the human form, using the body as a site through which relationships and narratives are constructed and reimagined.

Working across oil painting and etching, MacCrann explores the tension between the ideals and lived realities of national identity. Figures drawn from childhood memory collide with imagery from contemporary news, producing scenes that are at once dissonant, ambiguous, and darkly comic. His practice is characterised by a vivid use of colour, pattern, and the rich textural possibilities of etching, through which he builds fragmented, open-ended narratives.

These works reflect experiences of displacement, solastalgia, and the persistent sense of not quite belonging, often resisting clear resolution and inviting viewers into uncertain emotional and cultural terrains. MacCrann has exhibited regularly in Cambridge and London, with etchings shown at the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair and the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. In 2024, he was awarded the East London Printmakers Prize for outstanding print. His solo exhibition Do You Feel Irish? was presented at the London Irish Centre in 2024. He is currently developing No Place in Our Town, a new body of work incorporating moving image.

This work of art has been shortlisted for the Fen Ditton Gallery Contemporary Printmaking Prize and is exhibited at the gallery from the 23rd May - 14th June

To acquire this work of art, complete the enquiry form above or contact info@fendittongallery.com

Return to the Contemporary Printmaking Prize exhibition page here