A_Place Gallery is pleased to present Daughters of the Silk Roads, a solo exhibition by Elaine Woo MacGregor
13 - 27 March 2026
In Daughters of the Silk Roads, Elaine Woo MacGregor presents a series of paintings that are the result of an extensive research project from her travels to China in 2024 following the award of the RSA Blackadder Houston Mid-Career Travel Award. As a Scottish-born Chinese artist, Woo MacGregor sought to reconnect with the places of her own familial roots and in so doing present a body of work that might open up larger ideas of identity, history and myth.
The paintings take their central idea from the Silk Roads, the ancient trade route that spanned the entire Eurasian landmass, facilitating centuries of material and cultural exchange, movement and migration. A complex web of human interaction that to us now carries almost mythic as well as historical qualities. The paintings feature enigmatic women and girls journeying through cinematic environments, the artist tapping into a lesser told form of the epic adventure story that places the experience of women in these narratives centre stage and with a sense of freedom. They evoke moods from thrill and peril, to awe, to tranquility and exhaustion. Woo MacGregor constructs paintings that are re-mixed or collage-like, a result of her research process and handling of imagery, from her own photographs to fashion magazine cut-outs. She deliberately inserts anachronistic elements into the pictures - a girl sitting side-saddle appears to wear tank-top, trainers and leggings, for example. The pictures evade illustrating a specific moment or story and are interested instead in connecting these big themes into our contemporary reality.
“I am not interested in history painting per se, but in distilling a sense of travel through time.” MacGregor’s paintings avoid the heaviness of history by accessing a much lighter, fluid form and a casual ease with gesture. She taps into painting’s timelessness, its ability to time travel. The historical references infused with the neon glow of contemporary Hong Kong and Shanghai flirt with the science fiction of J.G. Ballard and William Gibson. Woo MacGregor is interested in the oral traditions, where the story of what went before is subject to the innovations of the teller. The ‘truth’ of what happened becoming laden with more meaning rather than merely sticking to the dry facts. In this way, painting is an apposite medium to add to this meaning, despite - or even because of - its visual temperament to complicate or obfuscate immediate readings. The painted marks, translucent colour and stacking of historically conflicting imagery providing more potential readings, and for the viewer to locate their own experience in narratives or histories that at first glance may seem to not belong to them.
The show coincides with the launch of Elaine's new publication of the same title. Find more information and purchase a copy here
Elaine Woo MacGregor (b. Edinburgh) is an artist and educator based in Linlithgow. She received a BA (Hons) Fine Art Painting, Glasgow School of Art, UK in 2003. She has been a lecturer at the Glasgow School of Art since 2008 and the Centre for Lifelong Learning at Strathclyde University since 2009. In 2019, she founded Linlithgow Art School.
Woo MacGregor has exhibited with the Cynthia Corbett Gallery at Art Miami, Expo Chicago, LA Art Fair, and the London Art Fair. Recent solo and group highlights include Maman et Muses (Edinburgh, 2023), Reframing the Muse (Oxford Art Festival, 2024), and The British Art Fair at Saatchi Gallery. Residencies include the Guizhou Art Academy in China and the Vermont Studio Center in the USA.
Collections include the Atkinson Art Gallery and Museum (England), the Art Gallery of South Australia, the 21C Museum and Hotel (USA), and the Rudolph Blume Art Collection (USA). Awards include Dewar Arts Award, James Torrance Memorial Award, Hope Scott Trust Award, and the Cross Trust Fund. She was a finalist for the Jackson’s Painting Prize (2022) and received the Art Paisley Prize. In 2023, Woo MacGregor was awarded the RSA Blackadder Houston Mid-Career Travel Award.
Woo MacGregor is represented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery
Merchant’s daughter wearing Louis Vuitton, (2024), 100 x 70 cm, acrylic on linen
Aurora Borealis (blue and pink), (2025), 60 x 50cm, acrylic on linen
Leisure/ Pleasure – Girls River Fishing, (2025), 28 x 35.5cm, acrylic on panel
Daughters of the Silk Roads, (2025), 100 x 100cm, acrylic on linen
Runaway (Silk Road Series), (2025), 35.5 x 28cm, acrylic on panel
Double Happiness 囍 (2024), 80 x 60cm, acrylic on linen