Gregor Harvie Kelvin installation
Gregor Harvie

Scottish Artist Gregor Harvie works at the intersection of art and physics, creating paintings and installations that are simultaneously analytical and poetic. Academically trained to the highest level in art, architecture and science, he works collaboratively with specialist researchers to produce bodies of work that engage and inspire diverse audiences, tackling the most complex and fundamental questions of our time.

Artist's statement

Gregor's practice tackles fundamental questions about the nature of existence, sitting at the boundary between scientific inquiry and visual exploration. He works collaboratively with specialist researchers to translate complex subjects into spatial, material and experiential forms that allow audiences to engage with them intuitively.

His current work focuses on the theory of uncertainty, both as its subject and method of production. Uncertainty sits at the heart of the debate about who and what we are; whether we have free will or whether everything is inevitable. Gregor translates this into highly experimental work that tests how meaning forms under unstable conditions. The resulting paintings resist fixed interpretation, instead continually becoming, hovering between final resolution and collapse. 

He approaches painting as a space where systems of knowledge can be felt rather than explained, expressing structural and conceptual concerns as painterly decisions: repetition and disruption, accumulation and erasure, control and accident. The canvas is a field where order is repeatedly created and destroyed.

Material process is central. Paint is allowed to pool, fracture, emerge and hesitate, so that decision making is partially ceded to the properties of the medium itself. This introduces a productive instability, where authorship is shared between intention and material agency. Uncertainty is not treated as a problem to be solved, but as a condition to be inhabited. Painting becomes a way of thinking through this condition without final closure, allowing meaning to emerge through friction between control and chance.

You can read more about uncertainty here.

Selected projects and exhibitions
2026The 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.
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.
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.
2024The 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.
2024Beyond Absolute Zero. University of Glasgow
Two large artworks exhibited in the Advanced Research Centre as part of the Kelvin Bicentenary Symposium.
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.
2012Alzheimer'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.
2010Gene 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.
2004Ploughed 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.
2001Constructed. National Centre for Circus Arts, Hoxton, London (solo)
50 abstract portraits suspended on trapeze wires in the converted combustion chamber.
1996-2000Millennium 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.
Education
2001Postgraduate Diploma, Fine Art, City & Guilds of London Art School
1997Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects
1995PhD, Computational Fluid Dynamics
1992BArch, Architecture
1990BSc, Architectural Studies
Selected press
2026The Herald, 'Remarkable paintings reimagine Lord Kelvin's vision of the universe'
2026Glasgow Times, 'Lord Kelvin-inspired paintings to be unveiled at Glasgow University'
2026Largs & Millport Weekly News, 'Monumental new paintings reimagine Lord Kelvin's vision'
2026ArtMag, 'From Millport with Art at Studio 44, Largs'
2025Art and quantum science. Cracking Quantum Podcast, Episode 10
2024Artwork, 'The Great Cumbrae 8'
2024Sunday Post, 'Plenty to see beyond fever of the festival'
2024The Herald, 'Artist to stage captivating art show on Isle of Cumbrae'
2024Largs & Millport Weekly News, 'Millport artist's out of this world exhibition'
2024Homes & Interiors Scotland, 'Scottish artist Gregor Harvie intertwines art and physics in new show'
2024The National, 'Painter unites art and quantum theory with science-inspired work'
2024The Scotsman, 'How Lord Kelvin continues to inspire, 200 years after the celebrated scientist's birth'
2024STV, 'University of Glasgow to celebrate 200th anniversary of Lord Kelvin's birth'
2024Scottish Field, 'A brush with science: Artist Gregor Harvie to create dramatic paintings to celebrate physicist Lord Kelvin'
2024Scottish Business News, 'Scottish artist collaborates with quantum physicists'
2024The Herald, 'Artist collaborates with quantum physicists at Glasgow University'
2024Art Mag, 'Kelvin's 200th Anniversary Marked in Art'
2024Scottish Design Awards, 'Art & science entwine to visualise quantum physics'
2024Guest Editor. Designing Buildings
2024Glasgow Times, Glasgow artist's tribute to famous city scientist Lord Kelvin
2024My Science, University of Glasgow celebrates Lord Kelvin bicentenary
2024Glasgow World, University of Glasgow celebrates 200th anniversary of the birth of Lord Kelvin
2023Gregor Harvie Vox Pop. Context 177
2023Patterns of the Creator. Colloquium, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Glasgow
2023ArtMag, 'Rolling a Six at Hunter Saville's New Cumbrae Studio and Gallery'
2013Countdown. Alan Weisman, pp. 111-119 (detailed account of Gene Meme)
2010The Interview Online. Interview by Nicky Barranger