Pastiche Photography by Anna Grayson
Wanderer Above the Sea of Solitude After Caspar David Friedrich
Anna Grayson is a graduate of St Andrews University and worked all her career in the media, mainly as a science writer and BBC presenter. As a mature student she attended Art College in Exeter and quickly achieved success with her photographic re-makes of famous works of art.
She has exhibited at the RA in London, the RWA in Bristol and SWAc in Exeter, and her pictures are in private collections in London and around the world. She has been exhibiting regularly at the Artizan Gallery since its inception in 2014. As well as photography Anna works with ceramics and print making.
Anna Grayson's photographic pastiches of famous works of art are highly collectable, and hang in private collections around the world from New York to New Zealand. She is one of very few artists in the region to have had several pictures hung in London's Royal Academy. She is now a member of the Yellow Room Artists - a group who got together after having work hung in Grayson Perry's famous Yellow Room in the 2018 Summer Exhibition.
Anna has been making photographic updates of famous works of art since 2013 when her version of Jan Van Eyck's Arnolfini Marriage (in the National Gallery London) was hung at the annual South West Academy Open show. She has been a regular contributor to the Academy ever since. Her aim is to give the collector their favourite old master but in the form of a completely new and original contemporary artwork. These are not merely copies of great art, they are great art re-imagined for our present age. There is a good deal of social comment and many of the works are themed around gender and equality issues. She is a former broadcast journalist, and that edge shows in the narratives of her work - most are very funny, and humour in art is all too rare. But all have serious depth and intellectual rigour to them.
Although they are for sale as single unframed prints, they look particularly good in groups, giving the illusion of an impressive gallery when you walk into a room hung with them. "They look particularly good hung in recycled frames, echoing the way the original works are hung." Says Anna. "They are always a focus of interest and talking points, and a great way to further knowledge and interest in Art History"
Anna has produced some new pieces during lockdown including a version of Millais' Mariana - that sad and lonely heroine in a bright blue dress, hands on hips and weary, weary expression as autumn leaves fall around showing the slow passage of time. Anna has replaced the colourful stained glass in the Gothic windows with rainbows.
" There is no better time to invest in art. None of us can spend our income on holidays, and even a meal out is difficult. Art is a wonderful treat you can enjoy forever and if you buy the work of an established listed artist, it may well turn out to be a canny investment for the future too."
Botticelli's Barbie Doll updates The Birth of Venus to something more appropriate for our #metoo age.
Edition of 100
Digital Print on Archival Paper.
29.7x42cm
Unframed
Edition of 100