Graham Day was taught by Howard Hodgkin at Bath Academy of Art in the late 1960s, before studying at the Slade School of Fine Art. He graduated in 1973, and subsequently spent thirty-five years as a lecturer at Bath Spa University College. In 2015, Studio Six Gallery held the fourth of a sequence of retrospective exhibitions, each covering a decade of Graham Day’s work.

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During his long career, Day has experimented widely with an eclectic mix of themes and techniques, including the craft of paper marbling. His work is inspired by different cultures and periods, and often reveals literary starting points. The mathematical harmony of geometry and the symbolic value of shapes have also played an important part in Day’s creative process, as he seeks to explore the mystery of ambiguous objects and to reveal their meditative quality. He is fascinated by the ability of widely different objects to infer the same idea or evoke the same emotion, and in particular the power of simple things to express grand themes.

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Most of Graham Day’s work in this exhibition has not been shown before. The majority are works on paper, and include examples of Day’s fascination with the format of the board game and the Oriental scroll, to which he applies his own skill as a paper-maker to reveal their artistic potential. The pieces were selected for their quality of design and mastery of execution, providing a bridge between artist and gallery.

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Examples of Graham’s work can be found in several national collections, including the British Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Private and public collectors alike recognise an intelligent hand at work in Graham Day’s unusual combination of freedom and technical knowledge, in which the material is always servant to the idea.

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For further information about the artist and available works please contact us on 020 7349 9909.