Studio 2
Mary Griffiths
Printmaker in FocusMary Griffiths’s prints and drawings often stem from her collaborative approach to making. Works in this exhibition have come from conversations with bio-physicists (Everything and All of Us); musicians (Weather); a physicist (Prospect Planes); and a writer (Prophet). Her geometric abstract works convey sophisticated ideas in a poetic way as she seamlessly bridges the macroscopic with the microscopic and moves from the cosmological to the atomic. The prints and drawings also often explore individual and collective memories and histories, the psycho-architecture of the house and particularly that of the working-class terrace, creating a relationship between two-dimensional drawing and three-dimensional space.
Griffiths’s distinctive drawing process involves applying layer upon layer of graphite to a surface and polishing it to a mirror sheen before cutting linear forms into it. It is a meticulous and time-consuming process and the myriad lines create depth and movement and animate the surface.
Born on the Wirral, Mary Griffiths has family connections to north Wales. Until 2020 she worked as a curator in various museums and galleries, most recently at the Whitworth in Manchester. She has exhibited widely, including exhibitions at Cristea Roberts Gallery, London, the Drawing Room, London, the Royal Academy and the Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester. She was awarded the Gatenby Fellowship at Leeds University in 2023 and had a major solo exhibition at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery at the University in 2024.
Artist’s Acknowledgements: Caroline Austin, Ellen Burroughs, Laura Claveria, Joanne Crawford, Tony Crowley, Job Dekker, Wieke Eringa, Kate and Jason Gatenby, Ella Georgiou, Stella Halkyard, Sarah Harris, Hot Bed Press, Ink on Paper Press, Ann Jones and the staff at Ruthin Craft Centre, Fionnula Kennedy, Naomi Lethbridge, Sarah Lowes, Manchester Collective, Leonid Mirny, Kostya Novoselov, Fred Pepper, Helen Stalker, School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds, Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery.
Curated by: Ann Jones
