Gregor Harvie is a Scottish artist whose paintings and installations explore the most complex and fundamental questions of our time. Academically trained to the highest level in art, architecture and science, and collaborating with world-renowned researchers, he creates paintings and installations that are highly analytic and deeply poetic.
His current focus is uncertainty, both as subject and method of production. Uncertainty can be a destructive constraint, but it also a liberator. It limits our knowledge of the future, but at the same time frees us from the past. Uncertainty sits at the heart of who and what we are. It allows space for free will and creativity, but it demands a willingness to embrace the unknown, the freedom to fail.
Gregor’s work translates this paradox into highly experimental work that tests how meaning can form in unstable conditions. Materiality is central to the process. Decision making is ceded to the behaviour of the medium, a productive instability in which authorship is shared between intention and outcome. Uncertainty here is not a problem to be solved, but a condition to be inhabited.
His paintings feature complex structures, layered geometry and shifting colour. These elements are repeatedly created and destroyed, hovering at the boundary between resolution and collapse. They explore how unpredictable realities can emerge from apparently chaotic systems. They transform uncertainty from a source of fear and discomfort into one of exploration and insight.
Gregor is collaborating with researchers at the University of Glasgow's Quantum Theory Group, for whom uncertainty is one of the deepest and most misunderstood concepts.
He lives and works on the Isle of Cumbrae.
| Selected projects and exhibitions | |
| 2026 | The Light and Dark Universe. Permanent installation, University of Glasgow. Two monumental paintings developed during a year-long affiliation with the University of Glasgow's Quantum Theory Group. More... |
| 2026 - | Uncertainty. University of Glasgow School of Engineering (ongoing) A collaboration exploring quantum gyroscopes and the wider implications of quantum phenomena for uncertainty, agency and free will. More... |
| 2024 - | Superposition. Kinetic installation (ongoing) Commissioned by the Scottish Funding Council, Superposition is a kinetic artwork recreating the Bell Inequality, one of the most important experiments of the 20th century. It will be shown at the University of Strathclyde in 2026. More... |
| 2024 | The Structure of the Universe. Hunter Saville Gallery (solo) A series of paintings developed over several years studying the fundamental patterns found in physics, supported by the Quantum Theory Group at the University of Glasgow. More... |
| 2024 | Beyond Absolute Zero. University of Glasgow Two large artworks exhibited in the Advanced Research Centre as part of the Kelvin Bicentenary Symposium. More... |
| 2019 - | Quantum Fields. (ongoing body of work) A sustained body of paintings arguing for the role of imagination alongside physics in uncovering the mysteries of the universe. More... |
| 2012 | Alzheimer's. Video animation Animated film showing an optimistic experience of living with Alzheimer's disease. Developed with input from Bristol University, Dr Kim Jobst, and Baroness Susan Greenfield. More... |
| 2010 | Gene Meme. The Crypt, St Pancras Parish Church, London (solo) 50 abstract paintings and 50 elegies exploring the over-exploitation of natural resources. A collaboration with Population Matters and Street Child Africa. More... |
| 2004 | Ploughed Land. Flying Colours Gallery, Chelsea, London (solo) An exhibition challenging romantic interpretations of the British landscape, instead presenting our contemporary environment as a human-made product. More... |
| 2001 | Constructed. National Centre for Circus Arts, Hoxton, London (solo) 50 abstract portraits suspended on trapeze wires in the converted combustion chamber. More... |
| 1996-2000 | Millennium Dome. (now The O2), Greenwich, London Trouble-shooter for the design and construction of the Dome, working alongside architects Richard Rogers and Zaha Hadid, and artists including Anish Kapoor. More... |
| Education | |
| 2001 | Postgraduate Diploma, Fine Art, City & Guilds of London Art School |
| 1997 | Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects |
| 1995 | PhD, Computational Fluid Dynamics |
| 1992 | BArch, Architecture |
| 1990 | BSc, Architectural Studies |
| Selected press | |
| 2026 | The Herald, 'Remarkable paintings reimagine Lord Kelvin's vision of the universe' |
| 2026 | Glasgow Times, 'Lord Kelvin-inspired paintings to be unveiled at Glasgow University' |
| 2026 | Largs & Millport Weekly News, 'Monumental new paintings reimagine Lord Kelvin's vision' |
| 2026 | ArtMag, 'From Millport with Art at Studio 44, Largs' |
| 2025 | Art and quantum science. Cracking Quantum Podcast, Episode 10 |
| 2024 | Artwork, 'The Great Cumbrae 8' |
| 2024 | Sunday Post, 'Plenty to see beyond fever of the festival' |
| 2024 | The Herald, 'Artist to stage captivating art show on Isle of Cumbrae' |
| 2024 | Largs & Millport Weekly News, 'Millport artist's out of this world exhibition' |
| 2024 | Homes & Interiors Scotland, 'Scottish artist Gregor Harvie intertwines art and physics in new show' |
| 2024 | The National, 'Painter unites art and quantum theory with science-inspired work' |
| 2024 | The Scotsman, 'How Lord Kelvin continues to inspire, 200 years after the celebrated scientist's birth' |
| 2024 | STV, 'University of Glasgow to celebrate 200th anniversary of Lord Kelvin's birth' |
| 2024 | Scottish Field, 'A brush with science: Artist Gregor Harvie to create dramatic paintings to celebrate physicist Lord Kelvin' |
| 2024 | Scottish Business News, 'Scottish artist collaborates with quantum physicists' |
| 2024 | The Herald, 'Artist collaborates with quantum physicists at Glasgow University' |
| 2024 | Art Mag, 'Kelvin's 200th Anniversary Marked in Art' |
| 2024 | Scottish Design Awards, 'Art & science entwine to visualise quantum physics' |
| 2024 | Guest Editor. Designing Buildings |
| 2024 | Glasgow Times, Glasgow artist's tribute to famous city scientist Lord Kelvin |
| 2024 | My Science, University of Glasgow celebrates Lord Kelvin bicentenary |
| 2024 | Glasgow World, University of Glasgow celebrates 200th anniversary of the birth of Lord Kelvin |
| 2023 | Gregor Harvie Vox Pop. Context 177 |
| 2023 | Patterns of the Creator. Colloquium, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Glasgow |
| 2023 | ArtMag, 'Rolling a Six at Hunter Saville's New Cumbrae Studio and Gallery' |
| 2013 | Countdown. Alan Weisman, pp. 111-119 (detailed account of Gene Meme) |
| 2010 | The Interview Online. Interview by Nicky Barranger |