Quentin James McCaffrey's first UK solo show was on at Alison Jacques from 3 September to 3 October 2026. Comprising fifteen small oil paintings of fictitious surrealist-Magritteish interiors. The panels hold a mirror, a doorway, a bouquet or a patch of sunlight. For me it was technically amazing, but a tad cold and overly referential. That was especially true with Magritte showing up the road at Gagosian at the same time.
The McCaffrey show has now closed. However, the Gagosian Magritte show is free and runs until 12 December 2026, which means you can still go and make the comparison yourself.
Cool Factor
★★★☆☆
3 out of 5
What was the Quentin James McCaffrey show?
It was the American painter's first UK solo exhibition, at Alison Jacques in Mayfair. All fifteen works date from 2026, and all are oil on canvas over wood panel. One of them, The True Veil, has eleven separate panels. That made 25 panels on the walls in total.
Everything is small. The smallest panels are 25.4 x 20.3 cm (10 x 8 in), a little smaller than a sheet of A4. The largest are 40.6 x 33 cm (16 x 13 in), close to a sheet of A3.
McCaffrey does not work from studies or photographs, and he mixes architectural details from different periods in one space. Figures are absent, he paints mirrors, vases of flowers, elegant rugs, gilt frames and sunlight. The gallery's text says this set is sparer than his earlier work, with fewer objects and more empty wall.
Who is Quentin James McCaffrey?
He was born in New York in 1987 and still lives and works there. He took a degree at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, in 2009. Then came a Master of Fine Arts at the New York Academy of Art in 2011. He won Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grants in 2020 and 2022, and he attended The Macedonia Institute residency in 2022.
In New York he shows with Nicelle Beauchene Gallery. He had solo shows there in 2022 and 2023, and a drawings show in its project space in 2024. Then came The Gifts, from February to March 2026. London first saw him in 2025, in the Alison Jacques group show Last Night I Dreamed of Manderley. Daniel Malarkey curated it. The gallery now lists him among the artists it represents.
In an interview with Artdependence, he explained where the rooms come from: "I work from my imagination therefore the paintings come from my psyche." He also said that studying in Italy shaped the themes and techniques he keeps returning to.
Alison Jacques and the hang
Alison Jacques is at 22 Cork Street in Mayfair. This year its programme has included Gina Kuschke, Gordon Parks, Roy Oxlade and Eileen Agar. Its next show is Graham Little, from 9 October.
The True Veil: eleven versions of one room
This is the biggest work in the show, a whole wall long. All eleven panels show the same mauve wall, pale skirting board and patterned floor. In each one, a single thing changes.
One panel has a small landscape painting leaning against the skirting. Another has only a pink sunbeam on the wall. Others show a bouquet on a stone column, a large empty gilt frame and a round convex mirror. In another, a cloth hangs over a frame on the floor. One panel shows nothing at all except the wall and the floor.
The True Veil, 2026. Oil on canvas over wood panel, eleven panels, each 25.4 x 20.3 cm (10 x 8 in).
The gallery compares the small shifts in light and angle to a run of film stills. Hung in a row, the panels read in sequence, like frames from a film.
Mirrors that show another room
The mirror paintings show rooms that cannot be there. In the largest Mirror with View, a gilt mirror hangs on a teal wall above a chequered floor. Inside it, a white classical doorway opens onto a garden at night, under a deep blue sky. Meanwhile, the room the mirror hangs in is evenly lit.
In the mustard-walled Mirror with Sunbeam, a round convex mirror reflects a long room. It has a chequered floor and a bright opening at the end. A yellow sunbeam cuts across the wall below it.
Another Mirror with View puts a gilt frame on a grey wall. Inside the reflection, a doorway opens onto fields and hills under a pale sky. A tiny oval miniature hangs above it.
Mirrors with sunbeams
In the largest Mirror with Sunbeam, a small convex mirror hangs on a taupe wall. It reflects a red-floored room hung with pictures, while a sliver of light hits the skirting.
The two smallest mirror paintings work the same way. A black-framed mirror leans on the floor and shows a doorway with a strip of horizon. In the other, a small gilt mirror sits on the floor of a grey room. A long diagonal sunbeam crosses the wall above it. In the gallery's text, McCaffrey calls these openings a kind of screen for reading the world. He also talks about two timelines sitting inside one painting.
Doorways, views and paintings within paintings
The two works called View are nearly square, and both look straight out through a doorway. In the first, a doorway in a green room looks out onto a pointed mountain, a long pool and dark trees. Gilt-framed landscapes are cut off at both edges of the canvas.
In the second, a doorway in a blue room opens onto low hills and a small lake at dusk. Again, framed paintings lean against the wall on either side, half out of the picture. One small canvas holds three kinds of landscape: the view, the framed pictures and the painting itself.
The landscape paintings take the idea a step further. Landscape shows a big gilt-framed picture of trees on a navy striped wall. The trees open onto a pale valley. In the large Landscape with Sunbeam at the top of this review, a tiny night landscape hangs high on a plum wall. A pink sunbeam falls below it. The smaller Landscape with Sunbeam does the same on a blue wall, with sunlight across a red floor.
Bouquets and the drapery
The flower paintings are the simplest pictures here. Bouquet is a stone urn of roses on a wooden floor against a tan wall, and nothing else. Bouquet with Sunbeam puts a smaller bunch on the floor of a pink room. A pink sunbeam falls behind it, and two gilt frames poke in at the edges.
Mirror with Drapery is the odd one out. A bright patterned cloth covers a frame on the floor of a cream striped room, hiding the mirror underneath. The gallery describes these objects as stand-ins for people, carrying their memories and emotions.
Honest critical observations
For me, the show was technically amazing, but somewhat cold and mechanical and calls to mind one of the gallery's previously represented artists Mathew Weir, though his exhibition history seems to have been removed from the gallery's website. The painting is precise, the light is convincing and the perspective is exact… so are these just scenes from Twin Peaks or a Wes Anderson film?
McCaffrey seems aware of the risk. "I view technique as an obstacle," he says in the gallery's text. He adds that technique should serve the painting, not become a display of skill. That is a fair aim. In this show, though, the technique is what impressed me, and the rest felt cold.
The titles do not help either. Three works were called Mirror with View and three Mirror with Sunbeam. Two more were called Landscape with Sunbeam, and two View. So if you ask the gallery about one, give the size as well as the title.
Magritte up the road at Gagosian
The timing did McCaffrey no favours. On 24 September, Gagosian opened This Is Still Not a Pipe: The Afterlife of Magritte at 20 Grosvenor Hill. That is less than half a mile from Cork Street. It shows eight Magritte paintings alongside work by more than forty contemporary artists, organised with the Fondation Magritte.
One of the eight is L'Empire des lumières (1961), a street lit for night under a bright daytime sky. McCaffrey's night garden inside a mirror in a lit room plays the same trick with two times of day. In the Artdependence interview, McCaffrey names Magritte among the artists whose paintings set a clear "stage". His New York gallery made the same link in its press release for The Gifts.
For me, having Magritte up the road at the same time made McCaffrey's show feel even more done. The Gagosian show is free, needs no booking and is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm. For a different show in the same space, there is our review of Christo at Gagosian.
Where Quentin James McCaffrey goes from here
This was McCaffrey's first solo show outside the US. It came with a London gallery that now represents him. His recent group shows include Barbati Gallery in Venice in 2026. Alison Jacques does not list a next solo show for him yet.
If you liked the paintings, follow him on the Quentin James McCaffrey page at Alison Jacques, which lists his works and exhibitions.
Is a Quentin James McCaffrey show worth your time?
Alison Jacques is a commercial gallery, so it cost nothing to go in. The paintings were for sale, but the gallery does not publish prices. Instead, collectors request a sales preview by email. If you are only looking, the cost is the time it takes to get to Mayfair.
On that basis, the show was worth a stop if you were already near Cork Street, especially with the Magritte nearby. For paid shows elsewhere, an Art Fund National Art Pass gets you half-price entry to many major exhibitions.
Practical info
- Dates: 3 September to 3 October 2026. The show has closed.
- Venue: Alison Jacques, 22 Cork Street, London W1S 3NG.
- Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 6pm. Mondays by appointment.
- Next at Alison Jacques: Graham Little, 9 October to 14 November 2026, with a preview on Thursday 8 October, 6pm to 8pm.
- Magritte at Gagosian: 20 Grosvenor Hill, London W1K 3QD, until 12 December 2026. Free, no booking.
- Price: free entry at both galleries.
The verdict on Quentin James McCaffrey at Alison Jacques
The paintings are technically amazing. They show tiny invented rooms, with mirrors that show the wrong view and sunbeams that move between panels. For me, though, the show was cold and done. The Magritte up the road made that harder to ignore. Cool Factor: 3/5.
Overall, a 3/5 Cool. Quentin James McCaffrey earns that for the precision of the painting and the cleverness of the mirrors. It falls short of Stone cold because the technique overrides the intention. The rooms also left me cold. If you missed it, the Gagosian Magritte show is on until 12 December, and it includes L'Empire des lumières.
FAQs
Is the Quentin James McCaffrey show at Alison Jacques still on?
No. It ran from 3 September to 3 October 2026 and has now closed. The gallery's next show is Graham Little, from 9 October.
Who is Quentin James McCaffrey?
He is an American painter, born in New York in 1987, who paints small, invented interiors in oil. He trained at the New York Academy of Art. He shows with Nicelle Beauchene in New York and Alison Jacques in London.
How big are Quentin James McCaffrey's paintings?
They are small. In this show they ranged from 25.4 x 20.3 cm (10 x 8 in) to 40.6 x 33 cm (16 x 13 in). That is roughly between A4 and A3.
How much do Quentin James McCaffrey's paintings cost?
Alison Jacques does not publish prices. Collectors can request a sales preview from the gallery by email.
Does McCaffrey paint from photographs?
No. He works from his imagination rather than from studies or photographs, and every room in the paintings is invented.
Where can I see Magritte in London right now?
This Is Still Not a Pipe: The Afterlife of Magritte is at Gagosian, 20 Grosvenor Hill, until 12 December 2026. It is free and open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm.
More from CoolCuration
- Five minimalists at David Zwirner. Another Mayfair gallery show, built from light and hard edges rather than paint.
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- Rose Wylie's Study for Red Twink print. A lithograph by a painter, from the Royal Academy shop.
- The gift guide for artists. Presents for people who paint, draw or just notice things.
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