Chris McLinden

Contemporary Artist & Conceptual Innovator

Chris McLinden originally trained as an artist, completing a BA (Hons) in Fine Art before beginning his career in hospital and community-based art therapy, supporting adults with mental health and developmental needs. This work deepened his understanding of human behaviour, creativity, and emotional expression — themes that continue to inform his practice today.

He later spent several years teaching across a broad spectrum of creative disciplines, including Fine Art, Graphic Design, Photography and Sign Making, before progressing into university senior leadership. There, Chris specialised in creativity and innovation strategy, working with senior academics to identify, develop, and commercialise knowledge-based products and services.

Uniquely, Chris is trained as both a fine artist and a chartered business leader, holding an MBA in Strategic Management alongside his Fine Art degree — a rare combination that gives him an exceptional perspective on creativity, structure, and innovation.

Chris has now returned full-time to his career as a professional contemporary artist and designer, working across sculpture, painting, drawing, and photography. His practice investigates the evolving relationship between humans, creativity, and innovation — exploring how people respond to new ideas, technologies, and cultural shifts.

A central strand of his work involves the deconstruction and re-purposing of found objects, challenging the assumptions, functions, and conventional representations of materials and concepts. By dismantling and reconfiguring them, Chris creates new visual narratives that reveal alternative meanings and possibilities.

Chris is also the creator of the trademarked innovation ‘Portraits of Concepts’®️, an ongoing body of work that examines how creativity is formed, captured, and applied within ever-evolving conceptual fields. This includes Environmental, Social, Cultural, Political, and Technological domains, where he transforms complex knowledge-based ideas into visual interpretations that reflect their real-world impacts, issues, and opportunities.

Chris McLinden’s work is defined by intellectual curiosity, conceptual clarity, and a deep engagement with the processes that drive human creativity — offering collectors a distinctive and thought-provoking voice in contemporary art.