Ken Currie (born 1960, North Shields, England) is a Scottish painter, one of the most influential living artists in Scotland. His paintings are displayed in public and museum collections worldwide.
Currie's paintings are primarily concerned with how the human body is affected by illness, ageing and physical injury. Closely related to these themes, his work also deals with social and political issues and philosophical questions. Although many of the images dealing with, for example, metaphysical questions do not feature figures, a human presence is nevertheless suggested.
He was labeled as one of the New Glasgow Boys along with Peter Howson, Adrian Wisniewski and the late Steven Campbell who studied together at the Glasgow School of Art.
His Glasgow History Mural was commissioned on the 200th anniversary of the Calton weavers Massacre in 1987 and is displayed on the ceiling of the People's Palace.[1]
Currie was commissioned by the University of Edinburgh to paint a portrait of Peter Higgs, the theoretical physicist, which was unveiled in 2009. He is a "reluctant portraitist", and this was only his second portrait.[2] He said, referring to the Higgs boson, "I am very interested in Peter's work. I don't for one second claim to grasp the theory, but I do understand the sublime, and there is a sublime quality to it all, a beauty, an awesome quality. In some respects, the subject is quite terrifying."[3](subscription required)