About Me

Ever Grainger in the studio 2023

I was born into a loving working class family in Liverpool. I didn’t get the chance to go to art school until I was in my 30s due to family and financial commitments. So I spent the first 15 years in the wild, self-taught and self-employed as an designer/photographer/illustrator running my own business. It was an experience made easier by working in part for clients in the arts. Once commitments eased, I was able to transition to an art practice and having moved to the Midlands, studied for a BA(Hons) Fine Art at Birmingham City University, graduating with a first.

Exhibitions after included New Contemporaries, New Art Gallery Walsall, Shoreditch Town Hall London, Phoenix Gallery Brighton, Gothenburg Museum of Art Sweden, Glasgow International Art Festival and ESC Gallery Graz Austria.

My primarily sculptural practice focused for a while on attempts at deconstructing the photograph ‘as object’ - led by both annoyance and fascination. Works and projects continued with a mix of exhibitions (The Photographers Gallery, Bearspace London, Brighton Media Centre, Recontre d’Arles) and experience gained on residencies, curating of photographic collections, raising funding and providing workshops.

From 2015, I returned to a broader sculptural practice concentrating on gaining skills in casting, metal and woodwork and working with unusual materials. This included a project creating works for and curating an alternative museum/gallery/installation space and garden in my home, open for two summers to the public, where I'd gone out on a limb to the Isle of Wight.

Since 2019, I have been working primarily with silicone, exploring the material's potential, but within a more traditional ‘studio practice’.

I was elected a member of The Royal Society of Sculptors in 2021 and since 2022 have been selected for the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition, The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition; The Royal Society of Sculptors Summer Show (2022 & 2024); The Royal West of England Academy Annual Open, Wells Art Contemporary and 'Samples' curated by Plinth x Royal Society of Sculptors at Cromwell Place in London. In 2022 also winning the Pangolin Digital Ltd Sculpture Prize.

Currently I am a particpant in 'Critical Mass // Draw' with Mark Devereaux Projects.

Pronouns: She/They (either or rolling use)

Pronunciation: as in 'ever since'.

 

More information and a full CV is available on request - please email me.