In conversation with Bryan Biggs
Walker Art Gallery, 5th July 2025
INTRODUCTION: With a long and distinguished career as a painter (note, not ‘artist’), Graham won the JM Painting Prize in 2023 after numerous attempts, being selected for the show ten times (and being on the selection panel himself) and shortlisted for a prize three times. Of his recent success, the headline read: ‘Man Finally Wins John Moores Painting Prize’ – with what Graham describes as his ‘best-ever painting’. His solo show, I Paint Shadows, was a consequence of that prize.
Much of his biography – his lifelong passion for art, training, exhibiting, teaching and writing will emerge as we talk, so I’ll not give a long introduction. Instead, I will simply say that Graham is arguably one of the most influential practitioners of his generation working in the field of contemporary painting and is its fiercest advocate: someone who is not content just to produce series after series of beautifully crafted, engaging works; but to also grapple with what painting is, and why it matters today. This conceptualisation is reflected in Graham’s writings that should be read by every aspiring artist, art teacher, exhibition curator, higher education bureaucrat, and arts policymaker.
He has said: “Art is about values. Art warrants respect because it offers us the opportunity to do ‘better’. I realise this is contentious, but ‘better’, for me, means a society that’s comfortable with itself. This involves greater empathy, more reflection, respect and generosity. It doesn’t mean wealthier or famous.
It means making art because it’s worthwhile rather than profitable – and being creative rather than passive”
And again: “I regard painting as a discourse and an occupation. One that allows me to straddle the boundary between thought and action, fiction and nonfiction. I’ve always been at odds with the art world, particularly since its domination by the art market. A reminder – if it were needed – that it’s now a major component in a world in which wealth and celebrity have become ubiquitous”
Or more succinctly: “Art is a construct; creativity is a state of mind”; “Art offers us a glimpse of autonomy”. Someone should produce a collection of these musings or provocations: ‘The Thoughts of Chairman Crowley’.
I got to know Graham through an exhibition at Bluecoat in 1982, showing alongside another painter, Tim Jones. I have been a fan since. Our paths have intersected in other ways too, including music fandom (which we will discuss later), art education and wider cultural concerns.