Graham Crowley | Day Light

TM Gallery is delighted to collaborate with Domobaal Gallery to present a new exhibition by the winner of the John Moores Painting Prize, Graham Crowley.

Crowley’s career spans back to the 1970s and in 2023, he was awarded the prestigious John Moores Painting Prize for his painting “Light Industry,” inspired by a motorcycle dealership in Suffolk. This piece was chosen from an overwhelming 3,357 submissions, a record-breaking number, and made its mark amidst a selection of 70 pieces showcased at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, before making it to the final shortlist of five contenders.

Crowley’s artistic evolution, from abstract to more figurative expressions, incorporates surreal elements such as a man with a pencil for a nose and vibrant, luminous landscapes. “Light Industry,” born from memory and portraying an ordinary workshop in an ethereal green light, underscores Crowley’s fascination with luminosity and shadow play. The painting’s rugged yet glowing portrayal, captures the essence of a workshop where creativity thrives.

Crowley has exhibited at the Paris and Venice biennials and has pieces in esteemed collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Joanna Whittle: (26.01.20) writing about ‘A Love of Many Things 3’: “Beautiful and unnerving at the same time – the pulling in different directions, horizontally and vertically – displaces and unsettles” 

Marco Livingston: (20.06.24) “Graham is only two years older than me and I’ve been following his work closely and known him as a friend for nearly 50 years; I even own work by him that is part of my daily landscape. Even so, the change of direction announced by these new pictures, painted in grisaille over monograph (mostly cadmium yellow) grounds with a lightness of touch and a bravura painterliness, was a revelation. Most of them depict interiors of workshops and similarly ordinary but cluttered spaces. They appear to materialise and coalesce out of thinly applied glazes, the all-important ground providing the key to their glorious luminosity.”

Anvantika Pathania from Fetch, London in conversation with Graham Crowley in ‘Light Fiction’ (03.06.24): “There is a lot of yellow in most of your paintings in this exhibition. It is also prominent in your later works. Is there any reason why?

It is cadmium lemon. It is dominant but does not have any special meaning. But it does have a special function in these paintings. I’ve discovered that if it were yellow, it would be hotter. If it were yellow, like butter, it would cause the whole space would be a lot ‘denser’ – that is to say, appear shallower. (…) I find [this yellow] arresting and visually stimulating. These aren’t exactly easy on the eye. There’s something about the way we’re wired when we see a lemon or yellow and black, like hazard warning tape or wasps. It’s probably subconscious. But it also sparkles visually. There is a sort of instability. Then there are the brush strokes. Each one is studied. You can tell which direction it was made, where it went, where it stopped and when things are erased. It is not an illustration, I am not trying to convince you that this is real, or that it is fact. It’s fiction. This is why the title. So, the whole thing about light and shadow is that it is ubiquitous, it is everywhere but intangible.”