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Portrait of Ed Gray by Sarah Ainslie

It is my delight to introduce this lively selection of paintings and drawings from Ed Gray’s new exhibition, Scenes of Innocence & Experience, 20th October – 6th November at House of Annetta, 25 Princelet St, E1 6QH.

Ed’s visceral paintings capture the tumultuous street life of the capital superlatively, teeming with diverse characters and delighting in the multiple dramas of daily existence. Despite his mild manners, his is an epic, near-apocalyptic vision that glories in the endless struggle of humanity within the urban stew. Yet the overriding impression is not cynical but rather a life-affirming raucous celebration of the indefatigable vitality of Londoners.

Lucky Tiger, Whitechapel Market, 2008

“I often walk through Whitechapel Market on my way to the studio. From a cafe, I watched the men set up the cardboard boxes and I took out my pencil and I began to draw. There is no ‘Lucky Tiger’ in this painting because there is no luck here, no punter will win. The child senses this and she can see past the man’s arm which is covering the switch he is about to make.”

On Whitechapel Waste, 2021

8:48am Liverpool St

Hellfire and Damnation, Mile End Underground Station, 2014

Shoreditch High St Sketch. Late summer evening

Torsion, St Thomas’s Hospital Lambeth (Huck Funt) 2016-20

Ladbroke Groovers, Notting Hill Carnival 2011

Ode to Joy, Westminster Old Palace Yard 2018-19

Still Dreaming, Olympic Way Wembley 2021

Everybody Loves The Sunshine, Parliament Hill Fields Lido

Paintings copyright © Ed Gray

Portrait copyright © Sarah Ainslie

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Ed Gray, Artist