anthony john gray : brit art : britart : contemporary art : the art of spiritual logic

ANTHONY JOHN GRAY
Born Cambridge. England 1946.

From 1969 until 1974 Anthony John Gray was a police officer with the Sussex Constabulary stationed at East Grinstead. In 1974 he left the force undertaking a self taught journey into the visual arts.

From a banned exhibition of nudes in Brighton in the 70s, which made the local and national newspapers to finding his own language in art, Anthony continues to exhibit across the USA and Europe.

In 1987 he was made honorary citizen of Palm Springs for artistic achievement. He designed the reverse of one of five commemorative medals for the Palm Springs Golden Anniversary along with Yaccov Agam, Leroy Neimann, R.C.Gorman and Olaf Weighorst.

He has worked on large installation projects for companies such as the Institute of Nutritional Sciences, San Diego and the I.R.T Corporation in California. He works mainly on canvas from small pieces to large installation works, diptychs and triptychs. He also produces three dimensional works in boxes.

He is currently working on the theme of a zero and a one, a series on the cross, numbers and the great church and cathedral series. Working with extreme precision everyone of his paintings are meticulously worked by hand.The artist does not use an airbrush.

Spending many years developing his own style of imagery the artist has always remarked that the work has carried the title of SPIRITUAL LOGIC.

AXIS GALLERY. Brighton. UK.
VINCENT FORLAGS. Stockholm. SWEDEN.
Private Exhibitions. MUNICH and BELGIUM.
GALLERY MATHILDE. Amsterdam. HOLLAND.
Travelling Exhibition. DENMARK and DUBAI.
TOKYO Art Fair. JAPAN.
NEW YORK ART EXPO. 1986. USA.
NEW YORK ART EXPO. 1988. USA.
NEW YORK ART EXPO. 1994. USA.
LA MONDE GALLERIES. Cincinnati. USA
KELMSCOTT GALLERIES. Vancouver. CANADA.
RIGGS GALLERY. San Diego. USA.
NELSON ROCKEFELLER GALLERY. Orange County. USA.
NELSON ROCKEFELLER GALLERY. Palm Springs. USA
DAGEN BELA GALLERY. San Antonio. USA.
PATRICIA JUDITH GALLERY. Boca Raton. USA.
GALLERY SHURINI. St James. London. UK.
LOS ANGELES ART FAIR. 1987. USA.
LOS ANGELES ART FAIR 1990. USA.
JARO FINE ART. Madison Ave. New York. USA.
BARON RENEE STEENS GALLERY. Brussels. BELGIUM.
INTERNET EXHIBITION. New York. USA.
WASHINGTON WORLD GALLERY. Washington DC. USA.
DYANSEN GALLERIES. New York. USA.
FORT WORTH EXHIBITON. USA.

Also exhibited at:

CARLISLE CITY ART MUSEUM. UK.
INTERNATIONAL DESIGN EXHIBITION. London. UK.
AXIS GALLERY. Brighton. UK.
NEWGATE GALLERY. London. UK.
CHALKFARM GALLERY. London. UK.
TOWNHOUSE GALLERIES. New Orleans. USA.
TONI JONES GALLERY. Houston. USA.
ATLAS GALLERIES. Chicago. USA.
ELAN GALLERIES. Los Angeles. USA.
SPECTRUM GALLERIES. Miami. USA.
ALLYSON LOUIS GALLERIES. Maryland. USA.
GALLERY DEMENGA. Basle. SWITZERLAND.
PRESTIGE GALLERIES. Illinois. USA.
VERNISSAGE GALLERY. Aix en Provence. FRANCE.
CORAL GABLES INTERNATIONAL ART CENTRE. Miami. USA.
GM GALLERY ARTS CENTRE. East Grinstead. UK.
20TH CENTURY ART. GALLERY DEMENGA. Basle. SWITZERLAND.
GROSSFORMATTE. GALLERY DEMENGA. Basle. SWITZERLAND.
KOLLEKTION DER GALLERY. GALLERY DEMENGA. Basle. SWITZERLAND.
PRAE-PARA-POST-KONKRETE. GALLERY DEMENGA. Basle. SWITZERLAND.

How did you get into art ?

I have always painted or drawn even when I was little, like most children I suppose. Paintings by artists have always fascinated me, when I was about eleven my father used to buy me pen and inks and I would spend every Saturday drawing from the animal exhibits at the Natural History Museum. Later I got into Michelangelo, his paintings and sculpture, from there I got interested in Surrealism. Pretty soon I was looking at everything.

Why did you wait until you were 27 before you took it up seriously ?

Well I did a variety of jobs when I was young which all gives to experience. I painted on and off in the sixties, nothing too serious then. I used to do murals of pop stars for local coffee house in Brighton, Rolling Stones, Zombies etc, at that time I had not really developed a style. Besides time goes quickly and I drifted into running a newsagent, joining the police, which actually opened me up as a person. I met a dear artist friend who is no longer with us, his name was Henry Baczkowski. It was through him that I considered painting full time. He showed me how to find yourself as a non referral person.

What were your influences ?

I was a bit of a loner at that point so I would get into books. Ideas seem more important to me then rather than making marks. I was trying to find something to say, so Surrealism was quite an influence then. But I also like Rothko, Stella and a whole list of others. I don't have favourite painters as such but rather favourite pieces. I like things that me think, an element of mystery. I just wanted to fill a gap.

What were you early pieces like ?

Abstract. Everyone starts with abstract. Everyone ends up with abstract. But it did develop out of that. Some landscape, mainly for drawing skills. Then into erotic cut out works and an obsession with brick walls. When I was working as a porter in the Lake District, where I lived with my wife in the seventies I used to copy Old Master paintings, to teach myself. These were done on condemned sheets from the hospital with any paints I could get hold of. I used to do Rembrandt, Vermeer and a load of others as well as still lifes I would set up. I would work all day, paint all night. That lasted nearly two years. Most of those went on exhibition in Stuttgart. We moved South then.

So why Spiritual Logic.

Its 25 years worth of work. Every time I met someone they would say, " Whats your work like ?", " Describe it to me ". When I was getting into my style of work it was difficult to describe it, so I call it Spiritual Logic. To me it sums it up. To others they are still confused but at least it's a start.

What are you currently working on ?

Zeros and ones, the basis of all things, a straight line and a curve. It makes everything. Binary codes, numbers, a cross, the ultimate symbol. Games ,codes, geometry, churches and cathedrals, icons and three dimensional work.

What about your faces and the realist work ?

That's still an ongoing theme although its getting further mixed as in KARMA. We are still going through infinity and they have their place in that journey.

View karma No 1 | karma No 2 (diptych)

Tell me about the Bridge paintings ?

Ever since the beginning I have painted the Bridge series. It is still ongoing, maybe one every 18 months. I have tried to deal with my journey and our journey from the beginning of consciousness. They represent known and unknown steps from the timelessness of my process, taking the physical universe with me as I go forward, stopping only when I must, to show my current position in the physical universe. Sometimes I do an offshoot painting as in TRAVELLING SIDEWAYS THROUGH A MISINFORMED PERSPECTIVE, a painting that finds me trapped in a landscape over which I have no control and is a repeated process I know I have to escape from. Yet within the painting itself, is an impossible geometry which comforts the traveller. In this dimension you have to know your own power. In the black and white BRIDGE I painted everything but the rainbow shapes black and white and all the faces are turned upwards resisting the cubes of sea above them. In there is a journey and you can see backwards in time, this process is repeated until we decide to change it. The KARMA No 1 painting deals with the bonding of old and new, a meeting in the middle of what has been and what is to come.

View The Bridge | Travelling sideways through a misinformed perspective

And the Liberated Desires series, you must have painted twenty or thirty variations including three dimensional pieces.

Liberated Desires first came in 1979 and it is one of those images that will not go away, you keep trying to perfect it. Seated above yourself, ruler over all things and yet possessing total freedom over choice, absolute personal freedom in your own head, that's Liberated Desires. Thirty pieces so far, maybe when I find that complete freedom I will stop.

View Liberated desires | Liberated desires No 2

What about the Flying Colours Series.

I started small works on paper with those and worked up to big canvasses. I had this idea about seeing large geometric structures floating in the sky, giving off and receiving energy, to and from the planet. When I started on them the ideas kept expanding until the recent sketches involve three dimensional works in series 39ft long. I haven't done those yet. I think they need a commission.

View Flying colours

Whats the connection between the realist work and your contemporary abstracts with lines ?

Well I am working at the beginning and at the end working my way towards the middle looking for a new direction. With the use of energy line in some works I wanted to connect everything together. If you look at the recent KARMA painting where the faces point downwards from a circle you can see the link. The faces are now free from one universe as they prepare to go into another. The inner lines at the centre represent unfinished business as do the lines in front of the faces. In KARMA the diptych I am chasing my wife through space and time, the inner circles representing the karma of both of us, but as individuals. The lines that connect back and forwards in each painting connect us and the painting together. An invisible bond that says we are as one, now and always, even though we have our own paths to tread. Its not a matter of different styles but offshoots. You have to find that inner spiritual logic.

View karma No 1 | karma No 2 (diptych)

So What are you trying to say with your art ?

Be nothing. In nothing be everything. Don't think. I want everything to come from the inside out not the outside in. If you add chaos to chaos you have order. A journey with a games condition. Reflection of truth, if I can find it. Puzzles sometimes, I like puzzles. Inner obstacles to overcome visually as in THE GATEWAY. Using the outline of a drawing by an unknown artist I wanted to create the essence of trying to find the true freedom for man, if he can overcome those barriers he has set himself. So I guess there are times when I do try to say something but only about our own condition in preparation for larger events to come. And as I am in this physical universe I show some part of it I deem necessary. In the diptych THE GATE I wanted to show movement, standing in front of opening and moving sections, waiting for the right time to go through.

View The gateway | The gate. Diptych No 1 | The gate. Diptych No 2

What do you feel about the current movements in the art world ?

There are no movements, only movement.