John Graham – Familiar Things

John Graham
Familiar Things
16 November 2024 – 25 January 2025
Lower Gallery

John Graham makes drawings and prints by repeating ruled lines through various processes and configurations. Colour in his drawings is muted or relatively vibrant, determined by materials – graphite or acrylic ink – and how they are layered and sequenced. Recent etchings, printed in black, are folded and presented with purpose made supports. In earlier etchings and carborundum prints, his lines are more overtly gestural. Though abstract, the repetition of forms in his work relates to aspects of music, architecture and design. These connections are sometimes emphasized by how works are framed, grouped or otherwise presented.

Familiar Things accounts for the familiar in different ways. The proximity of line is important, how lines are amplified by repetition to achieve the attribute of presence. The exhibition of new works is joined by examples of older ones, so that continuity, difference and future developments can be encountered and anticipated in this fuller context. John understands his practice as an ongoing activity, a way of living that includes the making of discrete objects for display. Beyond material specificity, these works locate meaning within daily routines, the forms and repetitions of everyday life. Familiarity is also expressed as a quality of duration; things become familiar, as elements within individual works and as a body of different works appearing over time.

Titles, Etcetera

With images of artworks and photographs of his immediate environment, and with a series of discrete texts exploring his studio practice through the lenses of literature, music and architecture, John’s artist’s book, Titles, Etcetera – produced and designed by Peter Maybury – will be launched in the gallery in January.