“…Breeze works as an ethnographer as much as a carver.… His work is immersed in the particularities of words and voice and culture. He restores language to us through his lettering.” EDMUND DE WAAL
Established in 1993 Gary Breeze quickly gained a reputation, not just for technically accomplished lettering, but for the innovative content of his work, which has won him numerous major public and private commissions. In his own work he explores the biography of artefacts and sees the inscription as a culturally iconic image. He often uses lists and makes translations, sometimes creating indecipherable texts and releasing the unwitting messages and associations contained within words.
Gary exhibits widely and was awarded the first Jerwood Contemporary Makers prize in 2008. That same year he won the prestigious Leverhulme Trust award for a twelve month artist residency at the University of Southampton department of Archaeology.
Although primarily a lettercutter of stone and wood, Gary uses a range of materials and recently completed a fountain in cast lead which adorns the cloister at Christ Church in Oxford, a project which involved the extensive design and re-landscaping of this architecturally sensitive site. Other commissioned work can be seen at: the Glasgow High Court, Greenwich Millennium Gardens, the Imperial War Museum London, the New Scottish Parliament, the University of Southampton, Westminster Abbey, Glasgow Caledonian University, Eton rowing lake, The Victoria and Albert Museum and Chatsworth Gardens.
To read his full biography, including a selection list of his solo and group exhibitions, click here (PDF format).
