Ashvin Harrison

“I aim to express beauty through my works of art. It’s the purpose of my life…” - Ashvin Harrison

Ashvin Harrison, an exhilarating young artistic talent from Australia, is making his American debut with Morton Contemporary Gallery. This 39-year-old painter is a self-taught artist who approaches each canvas with the contrary qualities of calm lyricism and explosive passion. Working with charcoal dust paint, acrylic, and oil, Harrison’s style is so musical that his figures almost literally dance off the canvas. This artist has come to be known worldwide for his integration of contrasting mediums. He begins with the soft, sultry subtlety of brushed charcoal to create sensual, hyper-realistic figures with digital-like precision in black and white -- dancers, hummingbirds, planets, trees, and musical instruments to name the most iconic. From there, he furiously splatters and paints this initial charcoal with many layers of color, creating a mystical chorus of beauty, sensation, and light. Driven by intellectual interests in existentialism, absurdism and the inherent conflicts that exist within the human condition, Ashvin Harrison composes sensitive figurative pieces with a fascinating balance of monochrome structure and colorful details.  

It will likely not surprise collectors to discover the artist is a serious musician (trumpet, guitar, bass, drums, and piano) and composer of four large orchestral works. Musical themes and movement is integral to this artist’s vision – not just in imagery, but also in his approach -- Harrison typically paints to music, thus each brushstroke is informed and guided by the music he surrounds himself with while creating.

As a child, and through his teens, the pursuit of various artistic and entrepreneurial endeavors provided Ashvin with safe refuge from an otherwise daunting world.  Familial and economic hardships led him to change schools as a child 8 times, and live independently at a very young age. Diagnosed eventually with a condition called Misophonia (a condition wherein common sounds like yawning, breathing or chewing have a significant negative emotional effect) and PTSD, Harrison doubled down to use any hardships to power his creative ambitions. With focus, perseverance, and a loving heart, the artist overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles entirely on his own, depending only on the creative passion he knew burned inside him. Today, Ashvin Harrison is one of the world’s top-grossing online artists, and his paintings are held in private and corporate collections in over 40 countries.