Pegasus — Chris Turner, born in Chicago, based in London — is one of the most technically accomplished stencil artists working in Britain today. His process is specific and labour-intensive: detailed, hand-cut stencils layered with bright spray paint to build portraits of cultural icons that carry both the graphic immediacy of street art and the chromatic richness of fine art printing. He describes his style as "punk meets pretty" — a phrase that captures precisely the tension between the confrontational energy of his medium and the warmth and colour of his palette.
His practice spans playful cultural commentary and hard-hitting political work, often within the same image. His memorial portraits — of David Bowie, Prince, George Michael, and his close personal friend Amy Winehouse — are among the most emotionally direct works in his catalogue, the stencil technique giving the famous face a quality of both presence and distance that suits the subject of grief and loss.
His Amy Winehouse trail, created in 2017, led to an installation inside the Jewish Museum in Camden for the memorial exhibition Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait — his portraits now part of the museum's permanent collection. He features in the Hollywood Museum in Los Angeles, where his portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball, and Bette Davis are on permanent display. His work I Got 99 Problems But an O$car Ain't One appeared on the streets of London and was subsequently reproduced in Los Angeles to coincide with the 2016 Academy Awards.
His Queen Elizabeth II series — available in three colour variants through Creed Gallery — engages with British royal iconography through the visual language of contemporary street art with the directness and wit that has always defined his practice. Available through Creed Gallery, Ascot, for collectors across Berkshire, Surrey, and London.
