Born at the turn of the 20th century, Irish British painter Francis Bacon lived a life of excess, marked by heavy drinking, gambling, and late-night debauchery. His paintings reflect this way of life, exploring the tension between primal instincts and rational thought, between desire and more civilized behavior, and between mortality and suffering. Characterized by unsettling palettes (bright oranges, mauves, fleshy tones, and ghostly white facial features), his paintings of distorted figures writhe, scream, and agonize within stark, claustrophobic geometric interiors or cage-like structures. His paintings sit somewhere between abstraction and figuration, evoking terror, abjection, fragility, strength, and the chaotic complexity of the human condition.
In “Human Presence,” on view through January 19th, the National Portrait Gallery in London brings together more than 50 masterpieces from Bacon’s six-decade career, focusing on the artist’s portraits. Indeed, Bacon’s depictions of a distinctly ordered chaos have inspired generations of artists that followed him.
Here are five contemporary artists to follow if you like Francis Bacon’s paintings.
George Rouy
B. 1994, Sittingbourne, England. Lives and works in London.
George Rouy’s fleshy, distorted figures mirror the intensity and emotional weight of Bacon’s paintings. Both artists manipulate and distort the human form, depicting stretching, dislocating limbs to evoke a visceral sense of psychological and emotional tension. Like Bacon, Rouy situates his figures in ambiguous, isolating spaces. However, Rouy brings a distinct sensuality and softness to his works, counterbalancing the existential dread that defines much of Bacon’s oeuvre. Rouy, like Bacon, employs fleshy, earthy tones, evoking a sense of corporeality.
Rouy’s recent debut solo exhibition at Hauser & Wirth in London, “The Bleed, Part I,” is the first of two shows, with its second segment to be shown in the gallery’s Los Angeles location, opening in February 2025. The titles of paintings from the London show, such as Minotaur (2023) and Trauma Bond (2024), explore themes reminiscent of Bacon’s works, reinterpreted in a contemporary context. Taking a cue from Bacon, the works explore how humans grapple with internal conflicts and face their deeply ingrained, primal instincts.
Rouy was born and raised in Kent and studied at Camberwell College of Arts in London. Rouy has exhibited internationally and is represented by Hauser & Wirth and Hannah Barry Gallery.
Tesfaye Urgessa
B. 1983, Addis Ababa. Lives and works in Germany.
Fever 1, 2022
Tesfaye Urgessa
Saatchi Yates
Revelation, 2022
Tesfaye Urgessa
Saatchi Yates
Tesfaye Urgessa’s paintings are large-scale mise-en-scènes depicting figures set against domestic backdrops. Some people lounge on sofas, surrounded by green potted plants, while others try on high-heeled boots or sit reading and praying. No matter what they’re doing, all of Urgessa’s figures are characterized by elongated limbs.
Urgessa’s focus on the human figure resonates with Bacon’s work, particularly in its exploration of psychological and societal tensions. Both artists distort and contort the human form in different ways: While Bacon’s figures are more fluid, Urgessa’s figures are rigid and awkward. However, both use the body as a metaphor for confinement and vulnerability. Urgessa incorporates Ethiopian iconography into his work, engaging with post-colonial identity and displacement. Urgessa’s paintings often draw from 13th-century Christian Ethiopian painting, sources of inspiration that he drew from frequently while growing up in Ethiopia.
Urgessa studied under influential Ethiopian artists Mezgebu Tessema, Tadesse Mesfin, and Bisrat Shibabaw before graduating from the Ale School of Fine Arts and Design in Addis Ababa in 2006. In 2009, Urgessa moved to Germany, where he earned an MA from the Staatlichen Akademie der Bilende Kunst in Stuttgart in 2014. Urgessa has exhibited internationally, including at The Uffizi Galleries in Florence, where his work is part of the permanent collection. He represented Ethiopia at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024, marking Ethiopia’s first-ever national pavilion in Venice.
Ivan Plusch
B. 1981, Leningrad, Russia. Lives and works in Budapest.
Immortality #2 , 2018
Ivan Plusch
Deborah Colton Gallery
In Ivan Plusch’s paintings, fragmented and submerged figures, partially obscured by drips and abstracted backdrops, are situated in derelict cityscapes. Populated by fleeting and fragmented impressions rather than fixed realities, Plusch’s worlds explore the impermanence of memory and perception, depicting a dissolution of the material world, mirroring Bacon’s fragile line between clarity and chaos.
Plusch is based in Budapest and graduated from the St. Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design, the Department of Monumental Painting, in 2009. Plusch’s work has been widely exhibited in Russia and internationally, with shows in France, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, the U.K., and the Balkans. His work is held in many international collections including the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, and the Triennale Design Museum in Milan.
Emma Fineman
B. 1991, Berkley, California. Lives and works in London.
Dora, 2020
Emma Fineman
Huxley-Parlour
Refractions, 2023
Emma Fineman
Alma Pearl
Emma Fineman sees her work as something between drawing and painting. Her pieces frequently integrate charcoal sketches to outline backdrops and proportions, intensifying her narratives that explore the fragmentation of human nature and identity. The contrast between her structured drawings and the rough, expressive application of oil paint reflects a tension between order and chaos, reminiscent of Bacon’s exploration of psychological depth and the unsettling nature of the human condition.
Fineman’s figures are set against ambiguous backdrops, usually marked by planes of earthy, muted color. There is a sense of intimacy and unease in her scenes, as her subjects are set in unsettling, liminal spaces. Like Bacon, Fineman embraces unpredictability in her artistic process, using spontaneous markmaking and contrasting colors. Both artists explore the complexities of the human psyche through distortion and expressive techniques, capturing the chaotic and fleeting emotions that define human experience.
Fineman completed a BFA in painting from Maryland Institute College of Art, minoring in gender studies. She then received an MA in painting from London’s Royal College of Art in 2018. Fineman’s work has been exhibited in Europe, the U.K., and the U.S. She is the recipient of numerous awards and residencies, including the Porthmeor Studio Residency in St Ives, England, and the Palazzo Monti Residency in Brescia, Italy. In 2018, Fineman was included in the Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition at South London Gallery.
Andro Wekua
B. 1977, Sukhumi, Georgia. Lives and works in Berlin and Zürich.
Jalousie, 2018
Andro Wekua
Sprüth Magers
Andro Wekua’s multimedia practice—with its fragmented, dreamlike narratives—suspends figures within psychologically charged, ambiguous spaces. Wekua’s work broadly encompasses collage, painting, sculpture, installation, and film. In his multilayered paintings, created using oil paint, oil stick, and silkscreen printing, Wekua’s subjects are often situated in ambiguous, claustrophobic spaces, whereby the artist has used framing devices to intensify the idea of confinement and vulnerability of the subject.
His surreal installation titled Never Sleep With a Strawberry in Your Mouth II (2010–12), presented at the Palais de Tokyo, consists of a wax mannequin lying flat on a wood panel table with a propped up house to replace the figure’s head. Through skewed distortion, delicate framing, and fragmented narratives, Wekua explores the fragility of identity, drawing parallels to Bacon’s deconstructed figures. However, Wekua reinterprets ideas central to Bacon’s work by incorporating surrealism and mixed media, reworking these themes with a new, visceral intensity.
Wekua lives and works in Berlin and Zürich. He has had solo exhibitions at TANK Shanghai, Kunsthalle Zürich, and Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow. Wekua’s work is included in museum collections around the world. He is represented by Sprüth Magers.
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