In conversation on the South Downs.

‘Growth’ by Gary Stranger is a new solo exhibition at Woodbury House, our flagship Mayfair gallery, on view from 21st August to 30th September 2026. It is the most personal body of work of the artist’s career. Ahead of the opening, we spent a day with him in the landscape where the work was made, and filmed a conversation that goes further than he has gone before. Painting a wall by hand, working with nothing but sunlight, and explaining, in his own words, what ‘Growth’ actually means.

“This is effectively my studio”

The conversation takes place on the South Downs in East Sussex, at Firle Beacon, a point on the South Downs Way that Stranger has known since childhood and retreats to now.

“I’m restless by nature and I don’t like being confined to a studio. My best thinking is done out in the environment. The ideas, the concepts, the theory behind the work all take place out walking or running in a landscape like this. This is effectively my studio.”

It is about as far, he points out, as he could get from where the work began. “The environment we find ourselves in today is about as far removed as I could get from the environment I used to spend my teenage years in, doing graffiti.”

Painting ‘Growth’ by hand

The film opens with the word itself. Stranger paints ‘Growth’ onto a wall in Brighton, letter by letter, freehand, in the thick brush style that runs through the exhibition. No stencils, no shortcuts, no undo. Every letter in the show is drawn the same way, and watching the word take shape is watching three decades of discipline at work.

Why the show is called ‘Growth’

The title, he explains, was not chosen for how it looks on a wall.

“It’s a word that best encapsulates the personal growth I’ve been trying to achieve, not just in the last year through producing this body of work, but as an ongoing journey. Personal improvement, small incremental steps, to try and just be a better person than the one I was yesterday.”

The hills he paints with

Beneath the thin soil of the Downs, everything is chalk, and for this exhibition Stranger has ground it into paint.

“These huge rolling hills are built up of millions of years’ worth of decaying plankton. Using that material, which is here in abundance, is me attempting to bridge the gap between the environment where the works are conceived and the final product. Sometimes it’s literally in there, the chalk ground up amongst the paint, or a predominantly chalk-based paint.”

The palette comes from the same place. The parched greens of late summer, the sand colours, the purples of the downland flowers, all of them direct references to what surrounds him up here.

Works made with sunlight

Solar pyrography is the technique of focusing sunlight through a lens to burn marks directly into wood, and some of the film’s most absorbing minutes watch Stranger do it while he talks. Three works in ‘Growth’ are made this way, with nothing but light. A light pencil sketch, a magnifying glass, full sun, and four to five hours of stillness.

“Something from nothing is the intention. There’s no margin for error. It’s part of the letting go, allowing there to be a bit of jeopardy. It might look the way I intended at the end, but there will be tiny imperfections all the way through it. Being comfortable with that is one of the objectives.”

It is slow, physical work. “It’s beautiful to be up here, but it’s also painful to sit like this for four or five hours. At the end I’m sunburnt and my back hurts. But that’s part of it.”

A looser hand

‘Growth’ marks a deliberate break from the precision that built Stranger’s name.

“My paintings used to be very precise, very linear, very tight. Very uptight, actually. And I am going through a process of forcing myself out of that. The old me would never have allowed there to be any margin for error, but I created a situation where every painting was stressful. That’s not the point. This is supposed to be fun.”

Asked what his younger self would make of it, the kid painting walls at speed, he laughs. “I think the teenage me is watching, shaking his head in confusion.”

Visit ‘Growth’ at Woodbury House, Mayfair

‘Growth’ by Gary Stranger is on view at Woodbury House, 29 Sackville Street, Mayfair, London W1S 3DX, from 21st August to 30th September 2026. The exhibition brings together more than thirty new works, seen first by those who register.

Questions, answered

Who is Gary Stranger? Gary Stranger is a British artist making paintings built on type and typographic form. He began in graffiti in the mid-1990s and has spent three decades refining a practice defined by hand-painted precision. His debut solo exhibition with Woodbury House, ‘Self Help’, sold out in full in 2025.

What is ‘Growth’ by Gary Stranger? ‘Growth’ is his new solo exhibition at Woodbury House, Mayfair. More than thirty new works exploring personal growth, natural materials and a deliberate loosening of his signature precision.

What is solar pyrography? A technique in which sunlight is focused through a lens to burn marks directly into wood. Three works in ‘Growth’ are made this way.

When and where can I see ‘Growth’? At Woodbury House, 29 Sackville Street, Mayfair, London W1S 3DX, from 21st August to 30th September 2026.

How do I get first access to the works? Register your interest through the ‘Growth’ page. Registered collectors are first to see the exhibition and first to hear which works are available.