Mary Griffiths: Everything and All of Us - In-conversation

Delve deeper into our current exhibition ‘Mary Griffiths: Everything and All of us’ and join us for this fascinating discussion.

Collaboration is at the heart of Mary Griffiths’ distinctive art practice. This conversation will explore her process, moving across art, literature and science.

Mary Griffiths’ will be joined by two of her most significant collaborators: Tony Crowley, Professor of English Language (University of Leeds), and Sarah Harris, Professor of Biological Physics (University of Sheffield).

Delve into the often unexpected but always fascinating intersections between art, biophysics, memory, gender, culture and class. Chaired by Curator Laura Claveria, the discussion will look closely at their collaborations and the way they have found new meaning between disciplines. It'll also examine the dialogue between Griffiths’ work and the University of Leeds’ art collection.

This is an event not to be missed!

The exhibition ‘Everything and All of Us’ at The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery will be open until 5.25pm on the evening of the event. The in-conversation will begin in the Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery at 5.30pm.

Guest Speakers’ Bios

Tony Crowley was born and raised in working-class Liverpool; he is currently Professor of English language at the University of Leeds. He has two main areas of interest: the politics of language and the murals of Northern Ireland 1979-the present. His concern with the relations between language, memory and place are explored in Liverpool: a memoir of words (Liverpool University Press 2023). His collaboration with Mary Griffiths has focused on related issues, including the question of the representation of working-class space in art and writing. His other research project addresses the murals of Northern Ireland as a long-standing and continuous tradition of political public art. Based on an archive of some 22,000 photographs taken over the past forty years or so, Painting history: the murals of Northern Ireland 1908-2024 will appear in 2025 with Amherst/Michigan.

Mary Griffiths’ abstract and geometrically inflected works of art are shot through with personal history, lived experience, politics and beliefs. Their subject matter often comes about through collaborations with musicians, scientists and writers, leading to the work now showing in the exhibition “Everything and All of Us” at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery. Previous exhibitions include Drawing Biennial, Drawing Room, London (2024); Protest and Remembrance, Cristea Roberts Gallery, London (2018); Wild Honey, The Turnpike, Leigh (2018); From Seathwaite, National Graphene Institute, Manchester (2015); Still Further, Bureau, Manchester (2014); Cabedal, Plataforma Revolver, Lisbon (2012). Griffiths studied English at Newcastle University, Fine Art at Manchester School of Art and worked as a curator until 2020. A book of her drawings, Pictures of War, was published by Carcanet in 2009 and her work is in the Arts Council Collection; Chippenham Museum; The Turnpike; The Whitworth. She is currently the Gatenby Fellow at Leeds University.

Sarah Harris is Professor of Biological and Materials Physics at the University of Sheffield. She is a theoretical physicist with an interest in understanding how biological molecules perform their extraordinary functions within living cells, for example how DNA is able to store and transmit genetic information. Her collaboration with Mary Griffiths is based on experimental data showing how DNA is folded and packaged within the cell nucleus.