Mary Griffiths

When I was small my mother took her three children to Windsor Castle. Probably we moaned and whined a bit but it happened to coincide with a display of Holbein’s drawings and it stopped me in my tracks. Transfixed, in an instant he’d ignited my heart, displacing for a time the trauma of bereavement. This is what art is and does: transformative, elevating, illuminating, numinous, transfiguring, and it’s impact lasts a lifetime.

The next time I felt so moved, and this time I really did hear angelic voices by way of the Russian Orthodox Church’s wondrous polyphonic chanting, was at the V & A’s profound, thaumaturgical ‘Gates of Mystery: the Art of Holy Russia’ a quarter of a century later. To this day I’d send a love letter to whoever curated it.

But what psychic dissonance there is, to hold in one’s mind’s eye that visual paean of praise with what’s unfolded in Ukraine. They say you can see into the soul of a people by looking at their art, in which case you must conclude that the Russians are a deeply spiritual people. I hope soon they’ll task themselves with constructing a system beyond medieval Tsarism.

Yet Andrei Rublev (1360-1430) remains a lodestar for me. I feel such an affinity with his role and identity as cipher; it’s the antithesis of the self- aggrandising egomania of some here in the west. There are other ways of being. To conclude, I want to quote Martin Amis who wrote in Einstein’s Monsters; appositely as we commemorate 80 years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki: ‘Art celebrates life and not the other thing, not the opposite of life. And art raises the stakes, increasing the store of what might be lost.’

Mary Griffiths
Published in Jackdaw 2025

Mary Griffiths CV

1956 Born Wales

1974-75 Dyfed College of Art

1975-78 Croydon College of Art

Taught by John Bellany R.A., Bruce McLean and Gus Cummins

2000 Member of Royal Cambrian Academy (invited by Sir Kyffin Williams RA)

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1987 ADC Theatre, Park St., Cambridge

1988 Clare College, Cambridge

1989 Thaxted Festival

1991 St. John’s Gallery, Bury St. Edmunds

1993/95/97
2000/02/04/07 Chappel Galleries, Essex

1998/2001 Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff

2017 Chappel Galleries, Essex

2021 Royal Cambrian Academy Wales

MIXED SHOWS

1987/88/92/
93/94/97/99 Eastern Open, King’s Lynn, Norfolk

1988/94 ‘Drawings For All’, Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury and Regional Tour

1989 Royal College of Art, London “The London Group”

1989/94 Haylett’s Gallery, Colchester

1990 ‘The Drawing Show’, Contact Gallery, Norwich
Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Mall Galleries, London
Royal Society of British Artists, London
Sunday Times/Singer Friedlander Watercolour Competition, London and Glasgow
New Gallery, Swansea

1991/94/95/97 Bow House Gallery, Barnet, London

1991 ‘Modern Contemporaries’, Chappel Galleries, Essex
‘Britain’s Painter’, Westminster Galleries, London

1992-97 Chappel Galleries, Essex

1992-97 Chappel Galleries, Colchester (Mixed Exhibitions)

1992 BP National Portrait Competition, National Portrait Gallery, London
‘The Human Form’, Conservatory Gallery, Cambridge

1993 Leicestershire Art Collection

1993/94 Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales

1994/95 Hunting Art Prize, R.C.A. London

1994 Spring Collection, East West Gallery, London
Wales Art Fair, Cardiff

1995 ‘Drawing Near’ – Touring Show, Fife
Hunting Art Prizes: R.C.A. London and Swansea
‘Making a Mark’, Mall Galleries, London
‘Showcase Wales’, Y Tabernacl, M.O.M.A. Wales

1995/96 Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff John Martin Gallery, London

1996 ‘The Human Form’, Mall Galleries, London
‘Human Interest’, Bury St. Edmunds Art Gallery
Conservatory Gallery, Cambridge
Guest: Royal Society of British Artists Poetry Commission, Prospero Poets, Clarion Press The Gallery, Cork St., London

1997 ‘On A Grand Scale’, John Martin Gallery, London
Chelsea Art Fair, London Contemporary Welsh Art, Hong Kong

1996/97/98 Langham Fine Art, Bury St. Edmunds

1996/97/98/99
2000 Art Fair, Islington, London

1999 Martin Tinney Gallery at Cork St, London

2000 British Art Fair, London “Gold Medal Winners Exhibition, National Eisteddfod”

2001 Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales
Langham Fine Art, Bury St. Edmunds
Martin Tinney Gallery at Cork St., London

2001/02/03 Royal Cambrian Academy Summer Show

2002/03 Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff

2006/07 Wales Portrait Award and Tour

2017 Martin Tinney Gallery 25th Anniversary Exhibition

2020 Art from Wales Lime Tree Gallery, Bristol

2021 Women’s Art in Wales - a personal view, curated by Jill Piercy. MOMA, Machynlleth

2023/24 Celebration and Compassion Chappel Galleries

SUMMER & WINTER EXHIBITIONS

2000-17 Royal Cambrian Academy Conwy, Wales
MOMA, Machynlleth, Wales
Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff, Wales
Lime Tree Gallery, Long Melford, Suffolk
Bristol Gallery, Hotwell Rd. Bristol
Attic Gallery, Swansea, Wales
Lion Street Gallery, Hay on Wye, Herefordshire

2017-2022 Seasons’ Mixed Exhibitions: 12; Chappel Galleries

2000-2025 Oriel Tegfryn, North Wales (2018)
Winter Mixed Show, Attic
Gallery, Swansea (2022) Celf Gallery, Cardiff

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC COMMISSIONS

2024 The University of North Wales

PRIZES

1988 Lady Evershed Drawing Prize, Eastern Open

1991 Highly Commended, Britain’s Painters, London

1992 Highly Commended – Painting, Eastern Open

1993 Highly Commended – Drawing, Eastern Open

1994 Highly Commended – Hunting Competition First Prize, ‘Drawings For All’, Suffolk
Gold Medal in Fine Art, National Eisteddfod of Wales

1995 First Prize, Hunting Art Prizes, R.C.A. London

1997 Lady Evershed Drawing Prize, Eastern Open

1999 Painting Prize, Eastern Open