Harlequins, cabaret dancers, bearded musicians and enigmatic travellers people the canvases of Ryan Mosley (b. 1980 in Chesterfield), who sets them within surreal, open-ended narratives. Characteristic is his technique of glazed, transparent layers of colour, with which he conjures dreamily shimmering pictorial spaces. After studying at the University of Huddersfield, Mosley completed postgraduate study at the Royal College of Art in London in 2007; during that time he worked as a guard at the National Gallery, where the Old Masters became an important source of inspiration.