Conor Collins

Since choosing to focus on exhibiting primarily through social media I have exhibited in major galleries such as Pallant House Gallery, been shortlisted for art prizes including the New Light Art Award, Saatchi Showdown Drawing Prize, The Celeste Art Prize and the Outside In National Art Prize, as well as had a painting unveiled in The House of Commons. Now owners of my art included 2 golden globe winners, Cultural Attachés, a gold medal Olympian, Sir Ian Mckellen, the author and actor Stephen Fry and the billionaire fashion designer Giorgio Armani.

My portrait of Tom Daley (2014) went viral and for a brief period was the most talked about image on the internet. It featured in TIME.com, The Independent, BuzzFeed, and even caught the attention of Ellen DeGeneres whose article on it was shared over 100,000 times within 2 days of being posted. More recently my portrait of Caitlyn Jenner (2015) made news both nationally and internationally. In the first 24 hours alone it was seen by over 1,000,000 people and appeared in Cosmopolitan, The Hollywood Reporter and MTV. In one week it was seen by more people than visit the MOMA in 3 years. My portrait of Donald Trump (2016) became one of the most viral images of the American Election featuring on the front cover of Newspapers both in the US and across Europe. Without a single gallery exhibiting them these 3 images combined have been seen by tens of millions of people.

I have used my platform to protest injustices in gender, sexuality, race as well as multiple other socio-political issues. My art has granted me the oppertunity to speak before MPs, Law Makers as well as the TIMEs 100, in order to change minds and help make our world a better place.