Ed Gray
About Ed Gray
London artist Ed Gray studied at Wimbledon Art College and Cardiff University of Wales graduating with a BA Hons degree in Fine Art in 1995. Aided by a grant from the Prince’s Trust Ed worked at various jobs in the city to fund his desire to continue painting from a squat in Elephant and Castle. In 1998 he trained to be a school teacher and taught art and design at a Peckham secondary school for four years while his work became commercially successful.
Bermudian Residency
In 2001 Ed was awarded a sabbatical from his career as an art teacher to complete a residency with the Masterworks Foundation of Bermuda. He became a Fellow to the Foundation and taught art in a prison facility on the island. Successful Bermudian exhibitions led to a painting trip from Panama to Mexico City where he recorded his impressions of daily life in nine Central America cities. Following these experiences in 2004 Ed decided to leave his formal teaching career to work as an artist, initially as a resident artist in a studio in a secondary school in Camberwell. In 2005 Ed completed a painting trip to New York and visit Edward Hopper’s studio. Primarily a painter of his birthplace London Ed is inspired by artists such as Hogarth, Lowry, Breughel, Archibald Motley, Jock McFadyen and the Tintin cartoons of Herge that he loved as a boy.
International Work
Ed returned to Mexico with his wife Ingrid in 2008 to live and create work about Mexico City. Inspired by this trip Ed returned to New York to set up a studio and then travelled to Bangkok and Tokyo in 2009 to depict life in these cities. Subsequently in 2009 Ed was chosen to represent England for the official Fine Art Collection for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. He travelled to Cape Town and worked with artists in Langa Township where he drew inspiration for his paintings from football matches in Gugulethu Township. His depiction of a township football match featured in a global touring exhibition and in the New York Times.
London Exhibitions & Events 2010-2024
2010 City Hall Exhibition
London & Londoners
Ed was invited to curate, and exhibit at the London Mayor’s ‘London and Londoners’ exhibition in City Hall. He ran a series of free public talks about his work.in City Hall.
2011 Art residency Bar Italia Soho
Ed unveiled a large painting of Bar Italia Soho in the window of Bar Italia, Frith St Soho
2011 St Pancras ‘London Souls’
Ed curated an exhibition of London paintings and prints for St Pancras Crypt Gallery with an accompanying musical performance and a series of free public talks
2012-2013 Art Residency at Searcys Club at the Gherkin 30 St Mary Axe
Ed created a large panorama of the city of London from the top of the London Gherkin, where he exhibited new London paintings as artist-in-residence.
2012 Exhibition on board The Dixie Queen Paddlesteamer Tower Bridge
Ed exhibited 20 large scale London paintings and prints on board The Dixie Queen paddlesteamer by Tower Bridge, creating an event with musical performances by London musicians and ran a series of public talks about his new work.
2014 Artist in Residence Millwall Football Club
Ed was invited to sketch Millwall fans and create his painting Adoration At the Lions’ Den, Millwall Matchday. He also completed a painting of fans at. Arsenal Emirates stadium
2014-2016
Oxo Gallery ‘Londonessence’
RIch Mix ‘A London Entertainment’ and artist talks
St Pancras Crypt Gallery,a large retrospective of his work took place at the OXO Gallery London in 2014. ‘Londonessence: Adoration’ contained new works about the city inspired by his love of Adoration paintings from the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery. In 2016 Ed curated ‘A London Entertainment’, a visual and aural celebration of the spirit of London for his exhibition at Rich Mix Arts Centre featuring a gospel choir, a Pearly king and Queen, a David Bowie tribute act, Viv the Spiv and music and film inspired by Ed’s paintings that was created and performed by students from Ed’s art residency at London Centre for Contemporary Media. Each of these exhibitions was accompanied by a series of free artist talks or dialogues, using Ed’s work as a cataylst for visitors to share London experiences.
2018 St Martin’s In The Fields:
The Passing Show exhibition & talks
Ed produced new works inspired by early Rennaisance paintings at the National Gallery for his St-Martin- in-the-Fields in his exhibition ‘The Passing Show’ in 2018 and gave a series of public talks there about his paintings and his adoration of London as an endless source of inspiration.
2022 Parliament Hill Fields Lido Art Residency
Ed was artist in residence at Parliament Hill Fields Lido in 2022, completing a large painting of swimmers and bathers at the lido.
2023 Scenes of Innocence And Experience House Of Annetta 25 Princelet Street Spitalfields E1
In autumn 2023 Ed was invited to exhibit at the House of Annetta by Assemble art collective where he was given a month long residency. His exhibition Scenes of Innocence & Experience was inspired by William Blake. In keeping with the platform for social change & activism within Annetta’s beautiful Huguenot House Ed gave an intensive series of 16 free talks throughout the run of the residency, for visitors, art students and school groups.
Talks and Workshops
In the last 10 years Ed has given public and corporate workshops, talks and lectures about his paintings of London and the concept of the city as a source of artistic inspiration. He has worked for the University of Connecticut London’s ‘Widening participation Programme’ and lectured about Hogarth for the Sir John Soane’s Museum London and Queen Mary’s University London ‘Art in the City’ MA module. Ed regularly delivers contextual and practical workshops on urban art and figurative painting and sculpture and has been visiting artist in primary schools, secondary schools, colleges and public institutions such as the Royal Drawing School, Tate and Dulwich Picture Gallery. ‘One Year’ a documentary film about Ed’s paintings was acquired by the Tate Britain Archive in 2012. Ed was awarded his greatest honour in 2014 when he was made a Listed Londoner by BBC Radio London’s Robert Elms Show in 2014.
Since 2022 Ed has beeen artist-in-residence at Boutcher Primary School Bermondsey south east London.