Craig Cameron-Mackintosh is a painter and filmmaker best known for his oil portraits of models and friends in silhouette. Growing up in White River, Mpumalanga, an environment that inspired many great South African artists, including Keith Alexander and Esias Bosch, Cameron-Mackintosh displayed prodigious talent for drawing from an early age, despite not having studied fine art. His move to Cape Town in 2007 to study filmmaking at AFDA deeply influenced his artistic career, not only lending a sense of cinema and story to his subject matter but also informing his technique.

Taking visual cues and references from photography, Cameron-Mackintosh explores the cinematic effects of light and shade, reworking the traditional silhouette motif and pushing the two extremes to trick the eye, creating different ways of seeing the same things. In a reversal of the typical order of artistic practice, his large, highly rendered silhouette paintings inform his smaller, looser works.

“What light reveals on one plane, it equally masks and distorts on the opposite. When the subject is backlit, the effect is almost like a photo negative – details are removed, rendering the age, facial features, and even skin colour of the subjects ambiguous. With a quick setting adjustment, the subject is overexposed and blown out with a soft focus. I enjoy this duality of the same scene. These near life-size figures stare out into an unknown landscape, with the graduated blue canvases as their windows."- Craig Cameron-Mackintosh

Evolving his artistic practice, Cameron-Mackintosh's newer works move beyond direct figuration, embracing a more intuitive and fluid approach. His continued embrace of a photographic aesthetic manifests in a new format, exploring the essence of presence when detached from the figure through altered perspectives, inviting viewers to engage with what is unseen beyond the frame. In this evolution, Cameron-Mackintosh continues to utilise his background in filmmaking, playing with light and shade to create a duality that challenges perceptions, unlocking novel ways of experiencing familiar scenes by intentionally obscuring details to leave room for ambiguity.

Since becoming a full-time artist in 2015, Cameron-Mackintosh has showcased both locally and internationally, including esteemed art fairs such as the Investec Cape Town Art Fair and EXPO Chicago. In 2019, his work earned him first place at the Sanlam Portrait Award. Cameron-Mackintosh continues to be based in Cape Town, exhibiting his work in solo and group exhibitions.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024
'You Were Here', Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2023
'Divine', EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2022
'FABRIC/KEN', Prior Art Space (Cuperior Residency), Berlin, Germany

2021
'Give Me Space', Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2020
'Nowhere Better To Be', EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa


GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025
EXPO Chicago, EBONY/CURATED, Chicago, United States of America
San Francisco Art Fair, Sobering Galerie, San Francisco, United States of America
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
'Second Nature', Sobering Galerie, Paris, France

2024
'A Very Loop Street Summer III', EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
Luxembourg Art Week, Sobering Galerie, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
'While the Music Still Goes On', Sobering Galerie, Paris, France
Foundations Art Fair (Online Edition), Sobering Gallery
Seattle Art Fair, Sobering Galerie, Seattle, United States of America
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2023
Expo Chicago, EBONY/CURATED, Chicago, United States of America
'Moments in Culture', Artsy x Outfront Media, US Transit System Public Art Activation, New York, United States of America
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2022
'HIRÆTH’, Phillips x Prior Art Space, Phillips (Online Private Sale)
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2021
‘MISA’, König Galerie, Berlin, Germany
‘Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt’, Open City, Keyes Art Mile, Rosebank, Johannesburg, South Africa
‘8X8’, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair (Online Edition), EBONY/CURATED

2020
'Diaspora’, White River Gallery, White River, South Africa
‘Boys Don’t Cry’, Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2019
Sanlam Portrait Award Top 40, Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
‘Palate, Plate, Palette’, Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2018
‘The Grand IV’, Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
‘The Summer Exhibition’, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2017
‘The Truth About Rabbits’, Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
‘Single Fare’, Highline Stages, New York, United States of America
‘Putty in Your Hands’, Youngblood, Cape Town, South Africa
‘Elemental’, Commune1, Cape Town, South Africa

2016
‘Portraits and Selfies’, White River Gallery, White River, South Africa
‘When the Lights Dim’, Studio Dylan Thomaz, Cape Town, South Africa

2015
‘Arts Ability’, Youngblood Africa, Cape Town, South Africa