Visiting Artist’s Talk – Mary Griffiths

For this week's Visiting Artist's Talk at the University of Leeds we welcome Mary Griffiths, the Gatenby Fellow in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies.

Mary Griffiths makes abstract, geometric, and mathematically inflected art that is shot through with personal history, lived experience, identities, politics and beliefs. In recent years her practice has developed a strong collaborative strand with scientists and musicians which has produced work that is alive with both the matter and the metaphysics of art and science. It has included making work with the Nobel prize winning physicist Kostya Novoselov; the Manchester Collective ensemble; the John Rylands Library in Manchester; and currently working with a group of bio-physicists on images of cell development. 

Her exhibitions include; Lines of Empathy, Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London (2023); Weather, Royal Northern College of Music (2022); Drawing Biennial, Drawing Room, London (2021); Summer/Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy, London (2020); Protest and Remembrance, Cristea Roberts Gallery, London (2018); Wild Honey, The Turnpike, Leigh (2018, solo); Prospect Planes, with Kostya Novoselov, for the Great Exhibition of the North, Newcastle/Gateshead (2018); Wonder Materials: Graphene and Beyond, Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester and touring internationally (2016-18); From Seathwaite, permanent wall drawing at the National Graphene Institute, Manchester (2015, solo); Still Further, Bureau, Manchester (2014, solo); Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2014); Cabedal, Plataforma Revolver, Lisbon (2012); Fathom, Bureau, Manchester (2012, solo); Memory of a Hope, Ceri Hand Gallery, Liverpool (2011).

A book of her drawings, Pictures of War, was published by Carcanet in 2009. Mary Griffiths’ work is in the Arts Council Collection; Manchester Art Gallery; The Turnpike, Leigh; The Whitworth, The University of Manchester.

Mary studied English at Newcastle University and Fine Art at Manchester School of Art. She worked as a curator in museums and galleries until 2020, most recently at the Whitworth in Manchester where she curated major exhibitions by Cornelia Parker, Raqs Media Collective and Elizabeth Price. She is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Manchester and is currently the Gatenby Fellow at the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds.

About the Visiting Artists’ Talks series

The Visiting Artist’s Talk (VAT) series hosts talks by an exciting range of arts practitioners from around the world every Monday afternoon 2–4pm during teaching weeks.

All of our talks are compulsory for our Fine Art students but are also open to anyone else who would like to join us.

For more information, please email Cesar Cornejo.

Directions to the Conference Auditorium

See the campus map.

Image

Mary Griffiths, Everything and All of Us, 2021 (detail). Photo: Michael Pollard.