DAVID GRIGGS

b. 1975, born Sydney,

Lives and works in Sydney, Australia

In David Griggs’ graffiti-trash canvases, tattooed skeletons and religious rituals collide with gun-toting cartoon characters and the Ku Klux Klan. Griggs’ journey into this street carnival of politics and spirituality began at the age of eighteen, while photographing scenes of Indian and Nepalese poverty for an underground newspaper. Later, he spent time with refugees on the Thai-Burmese border. But it was the cacophonous confluence of cultures experienced during a 2005 residency in Manila that really revolutionised his practice. Griggs’ recent paintings are a personal response to what he saw in the Philippines: death, violence, poverty, religion and sex, all writ on the huge scale of Manila’s candy-coloured advertising banners. In a ‘reverse collage’ process riffing on the city’s visual complexity, Griggs commissioned banner painters to translate selected travel photographs into paintings, which Griggs then tagged with tattoo imagery, skulls, text and other symbolic elements.

David Griggs lives and works in Manila, where he continues to gain inspiration for his practice, and is rapidly gaining attention for his energetic and seductive canvases. In 2007, he won the Primavera Artist Prize having been selected for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney’s: Primavera exhibition showcasing the best of Australia’s artists under 35 years of age. In 2008 Griggs was included in Art and Australia’s major publication, Current: Contemporary Art from Australia and New Zealand. Griggs’ work is held in major public collections throughout Australia, including Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art Brisbane, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, and the University of Queensland.

ARTIST INFORMATION

BIOGRAPHY

1975	Born, Sydney
1999	Bachelor of Visual Art (Painting), Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney
2007	Master of Fine Arts (Sculpture), College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales
Currently	Lives and works in Sydney

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019	Meditation Sex Music, GAGPROJECTS/Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide BETWEEN NATURE AND SIN, (touring) Griffith Regional Art Gallery, NSW, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, NSW, Orange Regional Gallery, NSW, Burrinja Cultural Centre, VIC
2018	Heroes, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney BETWEEN NATURE AND SIN, (touring) Glasshouse Regional Gallery, NSW, Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, NT, Redland Art Gallery, QLD, Cairns Regional Gallery, QLD, Lismore Regional Gallery, NSW
2017	Palmtree, Bass, Budda, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney BETWEEN NATURE AND SIN, Campbelltown Arts Centre, NSW
2016	Horror Business, GAGPROJECTS/Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide
2014	The Yum Yuck Hippy Paintings, GAGPROJECTS/Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide Magic Is Mentally Ill, Station Gallery, Melbourne Poverty Porn Bubble Gang, Future Perfect, Singapore
2013	Tie Die Till I Dye, Kalimanrawlins, Melbourne Ban all Pink and Yellow Pills, Gallery Esosse, Sydney
2012	Privation under the Palms, Galerie Zimmermann Kratochwill, Graz
2011	Zodiacs and God, Kalimanrawlins, Melbourne Frat of the Obese, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney Devils in Exile, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne
2010	The sort of black claymore paintings, PABLO Gallery, Manila
2009	Zombie Kiss, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne New York Paris London Rome Manila City Jail, MOP Projects, Sydney New York Paris London Rome Manila City Jail, presented in cooperation with Asialink and Australian Embassy – Manila, and Green Papaya Art Projects – Manila
2008	All I want is peace in the Middle East, a blow-job, and a free T-shirt, Kaliman Gallery, Sydney David Griggs at IMA@TCB, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane
2007	Blood on the streets, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne Blood on the streets, Artspace, Sydney
2006	Exchanging Culture for Flesh, Level 2 Contemporary Project Space, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Bleeding Hearts Club, Kaliman Gallery, Sydney
2005	The Buko Police, Green Papaya Art Projects, Manila
2004	Destination Disaster, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne
2003	Outside History, The Studio, Sydney Opera House, Sydney
2000	Me Against My Brother, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2017	Kim Hamilton Sulit's “Domestic Dusk, new works for The Mona Lisa Project, West Gallery, Quezon City
2016	Primavera at 25: MCA Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney DOUBLE VISION, Lee Kong Chian Gallery, NUS Museum, Singapore
2014	Brave new worlds. My utopia is your dystopia, Metroplitan Museum of Manila Future Primitive, Heide Museum of Modern Art Melbourne
2013	National Artists’s Self Portrait Prize, UQ Art Museum, Queensland Cocktails, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney Manila Vice, curated by Manuel Ocampo MIAM Museum, Sete, France Slug gun drug machine, with TV Moore ZINC, Manila UnBound an Australian Philippine exchange, Youchengco Museum, Manila
2012	BASTARDS OF MISREPRESENTATION: NY EDITION, curated by Manuel Ocampo, Topaz Arts, Queens Museum of Art, Tyler Rollins Fine Art, Crossing Art Gallery, Asia/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, New York Transportable, MO Space, Manila Hail to the Nightly Beasts of the Dark Sessions, DAGC Gallery, Manila Bastards of Misrepresentation – Contemporary Art from Manila, H Gallery, Bangkok Great Ghastly, Art Informal, Manila
2011	The Sta. Mesa Diaries, David Griggs and Poklong Anading, Center for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne
2010	Inversion of the Ideal, Galerie Zimmermann Kratochwill, Graz Painting with a hammer to nail the crotch of civilization, Manila Contemporary, Manila Bastards of Misrepresentation (doing time on Filipino time)Freies Museum, Berlin Free Range Aesthetics: Pussyfooting Through the Detritus Mind Field of Reality, Skyline Gallery, San Francisco Disorder Disorder Ulterior Motives in Contempororary Art, Penrith Regional Gallery and the Lewers Bequest, Sydney Post Criminal, David Griggs + Adam Cullen, Kaliman Gallery, Sydney The Death of Death (is alive and kicking), Art Center, Manila Twenty/20, UTS-Gallery, Sydney CODED, Blacktown Arts Center, Sydney
2009	Fluid Zones: Jakarta Biennale, Jakarta, Indonesia Group Show, MO Space, Manila, Philippines
2008	Under my skin, Asialink touring exhibition Neo Goth – back in black, University of Queensland, Brisbane Hijacked, curated by Mark McPherson, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney Australian, curated by Nicholas Tsoutas, Casula Powerhouse, Sydney Revolving Doors: an exhibition in memory of Blair Trethowan, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne
2007	The Independence Project, GALERIE PETRONAS, Malaysia and Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne God Captured Like Fossilized Dung: New Art from the Third World, Firstdraft, Sydney and Inflight, Hobart NADA Art Fair, Uplands Gallery Booth E4, Miami End of Year Show, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne
2006	Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Parallel Lives: Australian Painting Today, Tarrawarra Biennial (curated by Victoria Lynn), Tarrawarra Museum of Art, Healesville Fantastic Voyage, Kaliman Gallery, Sydney Winners are Grinners(curated by Hannah Matthews), The Meat Market, Melbourne
2005	Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship Exhibition, Artspace, Sydney Hardwired (curated by Robert Wellington), Firstdraft, Sydney Freedman Foundation, Sir Hermann Black Gallery, Sydney The Centenary of Wild Beasts, MOP Projects, Sydney
2004	Out of the Blue, MOP Projects, Sydney Rude Shock, Penrith Regional Gallery and the Lewers Bequest, Sydney Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship Exhibition, Artspace, Sydney Group Show, Kaliman Gallery, Sydney GG Allen Breaks the Window, Inflight, Hobart
2003	Festivus, Sherman Galleries, Sydney The Beetles, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney Balance of Power, Raid Projects, Los Angeles, USA Not All Heroes and Legends, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney The Fucken Weird Show, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne Anita and Beyond(curated by Lisa Havilah), Penrith Regional Gallery, Sydney
2002	Octopus 3 (curated by Charlotte Day), Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne OBJECTion (curated by Tim Silver and Russell Storer), Sarah Cottier, Sydney
2001	OBJECTion (curated by Tim Silver and Russell Storer), The Physics Room, Christchurch, New Zealand Black to Basics, 1st Floor, Melbourne Black to Basics, Rubyayre, Sydney Bootcamp, Block, Sydney
2000	Australian Painters at the Millennium, Imperial Slacks, Sydney Skulls and Solicitors, Gallery 4A, Sydney
1999	Qintex, Smith and Stonely, Brisbane Dazzle (curated by Russell Storer and Andrew Mcqualter), 1st Floor, Melbourne Hack, Grey Matter Contemporary Art, Sydney Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship Exhibition, Artspace, Sydney
1998	Fibro, Australian Perspecta, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney Vietnam Voices, Casula Powerhouse Arts Center, Sydney
1996	Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship Exhibition, COFA Gallery, Sydney

COLLECTIONS

Germanos Collection, Sydney
Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
University of Queensland
Joyce Nissan Collection, Melbourne
Powerhouse Museum
Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre
Tamworth Regional Gallery
Private collections

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