GRAHAM CROWLEY : ARE YOU SERIOUS?
An exhibition of paintings from 1977 to 2002

9 November 2002 - 12 January 2003
Wolsey Art Gallery

“Crowley is a painter of restless intelligence and tremendous energy, and it soon became apparent that these qualities, combined with a rather unfashionable social conscience, would propel him into exploring the world about him through an intensely focused realism quite unlike anything else to be found on the contemporary art scene,”
Andrew Lambirth Graham Crowley: The Evolution of an Artist

In 1977 Christchurch Mansion acquired a painting by Graham Crowley entitled
‘Curt'. This abstract painting is a fun and playful experiment with impossible shapes, spaces and dynamic colour. It is the earliest painting in this exhibition which covers 25 years of the painter’s career.

Crowley began in the 1970s by looking back into the history of art, raiding it for fresh ideas and producing bright, exciting abstract images. In the eighties, his work developed from abstract to figurative, feeling the need to convey a subject. This subject tended to focus on domestic life. Humour came out in his work with his paintings of unnaturally large familiar household objects and brightly lit, claustrophobic interiors which are slightly too close for comfort! The unsettled feeling he felt had emerged in the country during the Thatcher era became a theme in his work. He produced numerous landscape paintings of housing estates focussed on urban decay. Almost 10 years ago, Crowley moved to West Cork, this is where his most joyful landscape paintings have been made. This exhibition shows the development of Crowley’s career, his exploration of light, colour and beauty in paint but is also a fascinating piece of social history.

Crowley was born in Romford in 1950 and grew up there and in Ilford and Southend. Crowley has won many prizes and has exhibited widely. His work is in public and private collections all over the world. He is currently the Professor in Painting at the Royal College of Art. This year he was one of the finalists in the prestigious Jerwood Painting Prize.

Click here for information about accompanying catalogue