James McQueen | No Risk No Story | Unique

James McQueen
No Risk No Story
Unique original mixed media

No Risk No Story is exactly the kind of title that makes James McQueen's practice tick. Working under a pseudonym since 2017, McQueen has built one of the most commercially significant careers in contemporary British art on a foundation of vintage book cover aesthetics, bold typography, and phrases that land between the motivational and the sardonic. The title here sits precisely in that territory — a maxim that could appear on a poster or a self-help book, rendered in the visual language of mid-century Penguin paperbacks, and thereby made somehow more interesting, more provisional, more open to question.

This unique original is a significant work in McQueen's catalogue — not a print or a limited edition, but a one-of-a-kind mixed media painting built with the layered, sanded, lacquered technique that gives his surfaces the worn patina of a much-handled paperback. The physicality of the object is part of the proposition: a painting that looks old but is emphatically new, that borrows the authority of the canon while refusing to be contained by it.

McQueen has held solo exhibitions at Halcyon Gallery in London and his market has strengthened considerably in recent years, with strong secondary market activity across the UK. Available through Creed Gallery, Ascot, for collectors in Berkshire, Surrey, and London.

Unique original
Mixed media on canvas
Certificate of Authenticity