Childhood influences are nothing new in art or in life in general but what separates Alastair Mackie from the rest, is his harnessing and channelling of these influences.

From a very young age, Mackie was exposed to the cyclical nature of life and death down on the small farm in Cornwall where he grew up, and became acutely aware of birth, regeneration and death and the conflicts within both nature and mankind. It is this idea that Mackie seeks to represent in rodent form by what he terms ‘the manipulation of craft and concept’ and the result is both disturbing…

Childhood influences are nothing new in art or in life in general but what separates Alastair Mackie from the rest, is his harnessing and channelling of these influences.

From a very young age, Mackie was exposed to the cyclical nature of life and death down on the small farm in Cornwall where he grew up, and became acutely aware of birth, regeneration and death and the conflicts within both nature and mankind. It is this idea that Mackie seeks to represent in rodent form by what he terms ‘the manipulation of craft and concept’ and the result is both disturbing and fascinating in equal measure.

Alastair Mackie is a Fine Art graduate of the London School of Art and won the Madame Tussaud’s award in 1999, followed by the City & Guilds sculpture prize in 2000. He has exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer exhibition for the past few years and his work is included in Guy Portellis’ book on contemporary British sculpture, published in Spring 2003.

Mackie has shown his work widely in London over the past few years and is widely collected. In 2004 Charles Saatchi purchased a number of Mackie’s works for his ‘New Blood’ exhibition at the Saatchi gallery, which opened March 2004.