Graham Percy

Graham Percy studied at Royal College of Art and Elam School of Fine Arts. The recorded working language is English. Work by Graham Percy is recorded in the collections of Auckland Art Gallery, Archives New Zealand and Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Graham Percy was an artist, designer and illustrator. He was born in Stratford, New Zealand and studied at Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland. After graduating in the early 1960s, Percy worked as an illustrator for the New Zealand School Journal and collaborated with other Auckland-based writers and artists. He designed the typography for a number of Colin McCahon's exhibition invitations and set up one of New Zealand's first design consultancies with Hamish Keith. During this period he designed covers for The End of the Golden Weather and The Pohutukawa Tree by Bruce Mason. In 1964, Percy received a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art in London. From late 1964 until the end of his life, he lived and worked in London as an illustrator and artist. He was the production designer on the 1973 animated film Hugo the Hippo. While working on the film he met his second wife, the photographer Mari Mahr. For much of his career, Percy specialised in children's books, illustrating more than 100 works for children. In later years, he produced a body of his own independent art for adults. In 1994, Chronicle Books (San Francisco) published a book of his drawings for adults, Arthouse. In 2007, a further series of his drawings for adults, 'Imagined Histories' was published, supported by the Scottish Arts Council. Graham Percy died on 4 January 2008.

The Imaginative Life and Times of Graham Percy was a major posthumous exhibition of Percy's work. It was developed in partnership between City Gallery Wellington and Gus Fisher Gallery, The University of Auckland; it was curated by Gregory O'Brien, leading New Zealand poet, art critic and curator and winner of the 2012 Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement. A Micronaut in the Wide World: The Imaginative Life and Times of Graham Percy is an account of Graham Percy's life and art by O'Brien. It was a finalist in the New Zealand Post Book Awards 2012 and was highly commended in the Random House New Zealand Award for Best Illustrated Book 2012. A copy of the book was donated by the Chartwell Trust to every high school in New Zealand. As of October 2013, the itinerary of the exhibition was as follows: • 4 February – 25 April 2011: City Gallery Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand • 6 May 2011 – 25 June 2011: Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand • 22 July – 28 August 2011: Millennium Art Gallery, Blenheim, New Zealand • 10 September – 13 November 2011: Tauranga Art Gallery, Tauranga, New Zealand • 19 November 2011 – 29 January 2012: Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui, New Zealand • 17 February – 22 March 2012: Percy Thomson Gallery, Stratford, New Zealand • 5 May – 16 July 2012: Rotorua Museum, Rotorua, New Zealand • 28 July – 23 September 2012: Hastings City Art Gallery, Hastings, New Zealand • 23 November 2012 – 3 February 2013: Southland Museum and Art Gallery, Invercargill, New Zealand • 17 April – 9 June 2013: Eastern Southland Gallery, Gore, New Zealand • 15 June – 10 August 2013: Hocken Collections (Uare Taoka o Hākena), Dunedin, New Zealand • 17 August – 13 October 2013: The Forrester Gallery, Oamaru • 19 October 2013 – 26 January 2014: Nelson Provincial Museum, Nelson, New Zealand • 24 February – 20 April 2014: Whangārei Art Museum, Whangārei • 26 April – 15 June 2014: Puke Ariki, New Plymouth • 21 June – 10 August 2014: Aratoi, Masterton • 16 August – 23 November 2014: Waikato Museum, Hamilton

Graham Percy is recorded with the occupation typographer. Recorded as illustrator, painter, typographer and designer.