Samuel Ross

Samuel Ross sees himself first and foremost as an artist. Not in the immaterial, overused sense of the word—but as a good old-fashioned paint-on-canvas artist. In his industrial-style office space in London’s Brutalist cultural center 180 The Strand, he’s offering me a privileged preview of a handful of his paintings in the abstract expressionist vein on his MacBook. Ross is currently in talks with a big-name London gallery about representation, and another has expressed interest in a collaboration of sorts. This latest venture isn’t simply a box to tick on his growing list of creative pursuits. “If it were up to me, I’d be up a mountain in Guangzhou as a lay monk, just painting,” he says. “I’d be on my Frank Bowling vibes.”

But these days, 31-year-old Ross has far t...