Why Andrew Salgado is in the Design 100

Andrew Salgado was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, and trained on both sides of the Atlantic — a BFA at the University of British Columbia, then an MFA at Chelsea College of Arts, London, where he has been based since 2009. His large-scale oil paintings sit between portraiture and abstraction: layered, gestural surfaces built around a single face or figure, set against theatrical backdrops, folkloric motifs and bold, unresolved colour — closer to painterly reportage than classical portrait-making.

He has shown with BEERS London since early in his career and remains the gallery’s longest-represented artist, with solo exhibitions extending to New York, Cape Town, Miami and Basel. In 2017 he became the youngest artist to receive a survey exhibition at the Canadian High Commission in London, and his commercial record — a long run of sold-out solo shows — has kept his name in steady circulation across the city’s gallery scene for over a decade.