Brian Griffiths RA Elect (b. 1968)

Since graduating from Goldsmiths College in the late 90’s Brian Griffiths has been making sculptures and installations full of over blown theatricality and pathos.

Griffiths attempts to think with things, and considers how things think. Collected objects become rich material to be laid out, directed and persuaded to perform. He has made exhibitions with Bill Murray, invisible entities and wood.

Griffiths’ exhibitions privilege imperfect descriptions and freewheeling associations, and positions material facts with competing interwoven fictions. They approach visual languages and styles like fancy dress, to be enjoyed and changed frequently. As a recent show title raps out ‘No No to Knock-Knocks’ – a warning (to self and others) about falling into fixed routines, fixed thinking.

Significant solo exhibitions and commissions include: Camden Arts Centre, London; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK; Tramway, Glasgow; Art on the Underground, London; Fundament Foundation, Tilburg, Netherlands; Arnolfini, Bristol, UK; The Saatchi Gallery, London; City Racing, London.

Over the last two decades he has exhibited in numerous institutions including: Tate, UK; CAPC Musée d‘art Contemporain de Bordeaux; The Groninger Museum, Netherlands; Museu de Arte de Belém, Brazil; Barbican Centre, London; Hayward Gallery, London; Jeu De Paume Museum, Paris; The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, USA; Mostra D’Arte Contemporanea Milan; Musée d’art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; The Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Royal Academy of Arts, London; The Fruitmarket, Edinburgh.

In 2011 Crummy Love, Griffiths’ first monograph was published by Walther König.

Brian Griffiths is a Senior Lecturer at the Royal Academy Schools.

Profile

Royal Academician

Sculptor

Born: 1968 in Stratford-Upon-Avon

Nationality: British

Elected RA: 9 June 2022

Gender: Male