Mary Griffiths: First major retrospective exhibition opening in Yorkshire this week

Her practice involves applying layer upon layer of graphite to a surface and polishing it to a mirror sheen before cutting into it. Subjects range from the microscopic to the cosmic.

The work, which is rooted in geometric abstraction, is shaped by collaborations across literature, science and music.

Most recently as Gatenby Fellow at the university she has worked with researchers and academics from the Schools of Fine Art, Biology, Physics and English on a series of drawings and etchings.

“Collaboration is an essential strand of my practice,” she said. “It’s often the mode through which new work springs.”

Among her work, she created a monumental five-storey wall drawing at the National Graphene Institute in Manchester in 2015.

From Seathwaite inscribed the geology of Borrowdale in the Lake District, where graphite was discovered, the process of mining, the atomic structure of graphene, and the story of its isolation in a laboratory at Manchester University.

A scaled-down version of the work can be seen at the exhibition in Leeds.

Griffiths has also worked with Nobel Prize-winning graphene pioneer Sir Konstantin Novoselov in a collaboration which can also be seen at the exhibition.

Another work on show, requiring days of effort from the artist and her crew in protective overalls and dust masks, is her wall drawing Prophet specially created to be contained in a 13ft-high alcove at the exhibition.

Working in graphite is highly labour intensive. It needs to be burnished before she cuts into the accumulated layers.

“When I begin to see my reflection, I know it’s starting to work,” she said.

Until 2020, Griffiths was a curator in museums and galleries including at the Whitworth in Manchester.

“I learnt so much about being an artist from looking after the works of Barbara Hepworth, Bridget Riley and others.”

Her selections from the university’s special collections include prints, ceramics, drawings, textiles and sculptures.

They include works by Hepworth and Riley and also a woven hanging incorporating plastic thread by Mary Barker, who was the first woman to study textile industries at the university in 1926, enrolling on a course alongside 75 men.

Laura Claveria, associate curator of exhibitions at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery at the university, said Griffiths’ work invited people to question their own place in the world and stimulate conversation.

The exhibition can be seen at the gallery in the Parkinson Building at Leeds University from Thursday, October 24 until March next year. Admission is free and no booking is necessary.