Bruce McLean   1944 - Present 

McLean studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1961 - 1963, and from 1963 - 1966 at St Martin’s School of Art, London, where he and others rebelled against what appeared to be the formalist academicism of his teachers. In 1965 he abandoned conventional studio production in favour of impermanent sculptures using materials such as water, along with performances of a generally satirical nature directed against the art world.

When in 1972 he was offered an exhibition at the Tate Gallery, he opted, with obviously mocking intent, for a ‘retrospective’ lasting only one day.In 1971 McLean established Nice Style, billed as ‘The World’s First Pose Band’, while teaching at Maidstone College of Art. From the mid 1970s, while continuing to mount occasional performances, McLean turned increasingly to painting, in a witty and subversive parody of current expressionist styles, and to ceramics.

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