Alexander Owen (b. 1996) is a London-based artist whose work bridges the digital and physical realms. His paintings are inspired by 3D-rendered compositions and embrace the aesthetics of the screen—employing airbrush techniques to create ultra-smooth surfaces, crisp forms, and glossy textures. In these digital-turned-tangible still life works, familiar and surreal objects float, overlap, and defy physical logic, forming dreamlike spaces that challenge perception. Owen’s compositions are more than visual experiments—they reflect identity, memory, and personal experience, often referencing contemporary queer culture and nightlife. Through meticulously crafted images, he invites viewers into imagined environments where emotion, digital detritus, and identity collide.
Alexander Owen’s work explores the relationship between new digital technologies and painting, translating 3D rendered compositions into smooth digital-like paintings using airbrush painting. The finished works don’t shy away from their screen based references, but rather embrace and emphasise their similarities and sources with glossy materials, smooth textures and crisp forms. Objects in the compositions take on new life in a way they wouldn’t be able to in the real world, clipping into each other, floating in space and playing with scale.

In these still life compositions, Owen’s works paint a portrait of characters and experiences through the arranged objects and their environments. Collections of, sometimes seemingly disjointed items, reflect identities and experiences of both real and imagined characters. Within the paintings, there are strong ideas of identity and belonging especially surrounding contemporary queer culture and night life, an ongoing theme in Owen’s practice.