Chris Otley has an ongoing interest in the landscapes, structures, flora and fauna of the coast. In both etchings with aquatint, and crisp and meticulous works on paper in graphite, he has drawn quiet comparison between the refuge shelters found on the wonderfully liminal tidal causeway of the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, Northumberland (close to where he grew up), and the 'adjacent' beaches of Denmark, surrounded by industrial shipping ports and abandoned Nazi-era bunkers.
Beaches and coastlines can be seen as at the heart of ideas of nationality and community, whether they welcome or guard against incomers.
Otley studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art (BA 2005, MA 2006). He has regularly exhibited both independently and in group exhibitions. Recent highlights include his solo show ‘Coast’ at Magdalen Road Studios, Oxford; the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair (2025); the International Original Print Exhibition (RE) at the Bankside Gallery (2024); The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2019, 2021, 2022, 2024); the Bainbridge Open (2025, 2023); and the Society of Graphic Fine Arts at the Mall Gallery (2022). He has been awarded residencies at Cill Rialaig, County Kerry (2019) and Outlandia, Glen Nevis (2017), organised by London Fieldworks and the Nevis Landscape Partnership.
He lives and works in Oxford.
"It being a general rule in Nature’s proceedings, that where she begins to display any excellency, if the subject be further search’d into, it will manifest, that there is not less curiosity in those parts which our single eye cannot reach, than in those which are more obvious.” Robert Hooke, Micrographia, 1665
For sales enquiries, please get in touch: chris@chrisotley.com
Etchings from the edition are available unless stated otherwise.
Limited giclee prints are also available from many of the original drawings.
Commissions are also welcomed.
Above: ‘COAST’ at Magdalen Road Gallery, Oxford
CV
b.1983
2005 BA (Hons), History of Art, Courtauld Institute of Art, London
2006 MA, History of Art (18th c French and British), Courtauld Institute of Art, London
2008-2014 Head of Art, Merchant Taylors' School
2014-2019 Head of Art, Magdalen College School, Oxford
Selected Exhibitions:
2025 Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, 13-16 Nov
2025 Small But Mighty, Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE), Bankside Gallery, London, 18-28 Sep
2025 Bainbridge Open, Handbag Factory, London, 5-8 Sep
2025 New Light Art Summer Exhibition of the North, Sunny Bank Mills, Leeds, 8 Jul–10 Aug
2024 International Original Print Exhibition, Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE), Bankside Gallery, London, 7-17 Nov
2024 ‘COAST’, solo exhibition, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, (1 Sep-15 Nov)
2024 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London (18 June-18 Aug)
2024 INC Manchester-Oxford Printmakers (group show),Magdalen Road Studio, Oxford (1-9 June)
2024 ‘COAST’, solo exhibition, Magdalen Road Studios Gallery, Oxford (23-25 Feb)
2023 Bainbridge Open, Handbag Factory, London
2022 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
2022 Society of Graphic Fine Arts, Mall Galleries, London (17-21 May)
2021 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
2019 Turn of the Year (group show), Cornerstone Arts Centre, Didcot (28 Nov-5 Jan)
2019 CommUnity (group show), Wolfson College, Oxford
2019 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
2019 'First Animals' (group show) in collaboration with Oxford University Museum of Natural History (July 2019-Feb 2020)
2019 'First Imprints', (group show) in collaboration with OUMNH, North Wall Gallery, Oxford (July-Aug 2019)
2019 Artist-in-residence, Cill Rialaig, County Kerry, Ireland (Dec-Jan)
2018 'CommUnity' international print exchange (group show) at Magdalen Road Studios, Oxford (10-18 Nov)
2017 Artist-in-residence, Outlandia, Glen Nevis, Scotland (July); organised by London Fieldworks and the Nevis Landscape Partnership
2017 'Draw 17' (group show) at Menier Gallery, London (2-14 Oct)
2016 'Draw 16' (group show) at Menier Gallery, London (3-15 Oct)
2016 'DisLocate' (group show) at old VW Showroom, Iffley Road, Oxford (27 May-5 June)
2015 'Forces of Nature' (group show) at One Art Space, Manhattan, NY, USA (20 March-15 April)
2014 'Here and There' with Herb Smith at Mighty Tanaka, Brooklyn, NY, USA (19 Sept-31 Oct)
2013 'The Other Art Fair', Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane
2013 'Rhopography', solo exhibition, Westminster School
2012 'The Natural Eye', Mall Galleries, London
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