ABOUT

I am a neurodiverse artist and graduate of Chelsea College of Arts (UAL), working across painting - landscape, portraiture, and street art.

My practice is unified by a focus on wellbeing, identity, recovery and it incorporates therapeutic approaches to creation, grounded in lived experience of mental illness.

In my work I explore how we reconstruct a sense of self from experiences that fragment us, and how reconciliation becomes possible.

I express myself through five aliases:

@gjharding.pleinair - (landscape painting)

@gjharding.portraits - (portraiture)

@gjharding.therapy - (therapeutic art)

@gjharding.murals - (public art)

@goddododada - (poetry as catharsis)

Each has their own form and intention but together, they trace the self in flux between fragmentation and wholeness, finding more authentic ways of being and belonging.

    • 11th June - October 26 - Noah Of The Zoa - Creative Health Camden - London

    • 14th Sept - 28th Sept 25 - Pixelated Personas - Spike Island Test Space, Bristol

    • 7th Sept 23 -12th Feb 24 - Sea To See - ORTUS, Grove Lane, London

    • 2nd Jan 23 - 30th April 23, A Plein Air Journey, Southmead Hospital, Bristol

    • 1st Dec 2021 – 1st March 2022, The Painted Path, online exhibition at www.georgejharding.co.uk

    • 12th April – 20th May 2016, Mirror, The Ripley Arts Centre, Bromley, London

    • 5thDec 2013 – 31stJan 2014, Art Leads To External Places, The Long Gallery, Maudsley Hospital, London

    • 7th – 30th March 2012, There Is Good In Us, Bethlem Gallery, Bethlem Royal Hospital, Kent

    • 18th May – 6th June 2012, Object, Peoples Republic of Stokes Croft, Jamaica Street, Stokes Croft, Bristol

    • 28th March - 8th November 26 Wenn Die Welt Kopf Steht - Landesklinikum Mauer, Austria

    • 24th January – 19th April 26 - The Weight of Being - Vulnerability, Resilience, and Mental Health in Art, Two Temple Place, London

    • 8th Nov 25 - 25th July 26 - What Brings Me Joy - Glenside Hospital Museum, Bristol

    • 17th Aug - 22nd Nov 25 - Between Sleeping and Waking: Hospital Dreams and Visitations - Bethlem Museum of the Mind, Beckenham, Kent

    • 30th Sept 23 - 14th April 24 -Concealed/Reveal - Bristol Museum and Art Gallery

    • 15th April 23 - 30th March 24, Every Picture Tells A Story - Glenside Museum

    • 22nd Feb - 2nd Sept 2023, Bethlem Museum Of The Mind - The Faces We Present

    • 28th Jan 2022 – 26th June 2022, The Brain In Art and Science, Bunderskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany

    • 27th Jan – 21st April 2022, Another Space Within, Outside In online exhibition

    • 14th Feb 2021 – 31st March 2021, In Absentia, online exhibition for TURPS BANANA Correspondence Course 20/21

    • 12th – 15th March 2020, Battersea Affordable Art Fair London, with Clifton Fine Art, Bristol

    • 7th – 23rd Dec 2019, Bethlem Affordable Art Fair, Bethlem Gallery, Bethlem Royal Hospital, Beckenham, Kent

    • 21st – 24th Nov 2019, Edinburgh Art Fair, With Clifton Fine Art, Bristol

    • 29th Sept – 1st Dec 2019, 167th Annual Open Exhibition, RWA, Bristol

    • 16th Jan – 27th April 2019, The Anatomy Of Melancholy, Museum Of The Mind, Bethlem Royal Hospital, Beckenham, Kent

    • 7th Dec – 23rd Dec 2018, Bethlem Affordable Art Fair, Bethlem Gallery, Bethlem Royal Hospital, Kent

    • 12th April – 3rd May 2018, Cardboard Citizens Charity Auction And Exhibition, Hanover Street, Mayfair, London

    • 28th April – 12th May 2018, As Seen On Stokes Croft, Great White Art, Bristol

    • 25th Nov – 22nd Dec 2017, Bethlem Affordable Art Fair, Bethlem Gallery, Bethlem Royal Hospital, Beckenham, Kent

    • 1st Oct – 30th Nov 2017, With Art In Mind, Zebra One Gallery, Hampstead, London

    • 1st July – 26th Aug 2017, XX, Bethlem Gallery, Bethlem Royal Hospital, Kent

    • Alternative Visions: Undiscovered Art From The South West

    1. 3rd June – 10th Sept 2017, Bristol Museum And Art Gallery

    2. 25th Sep – 10th Dec 2017, Falmouth Art Gallery,

    3. 6th Jan – 11th March 2018, The Wilson Cheltenham,

    4. 21st March – 6th May 2018, Poole Museum

    • 11th Feb – 7th April 2016, Youtopia, Museum Of The Mind, Bethlem Royal Hospital, Beckenham, Kent

    • 25th Jan – 24th March 2016, Letting In The Light, Stratford Library, Stratford, London

    • 4th Oct – 29th Nov 2015, Annual Autumn exhibition, RWA Bristol

    • 19th Feb – 10th April 2015, Where is the Work in the Work of Art, Bethlem Gallery, Bethlem Royal Hospital, Kent

    • 1st – 23rd Dec 2013, Bethlem Affordable Art Fair, Bethlem Gallery, Bethlem Royal Hospital, Kent

    • 26th – 28th July 2013, Impact Arts Fair, Brixton, London

    • 12th – 23rd July 2012, One In Four Online Auction, Studio Upstairs, Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London)

    • Sun 4th Dec, A Little Yellow Pill, The Peckham Hotel, Copeland Road, SE15 3SN

    • 4th Nov – 8th Jan 2012, In Darkness Blooms, View Art Gallery, Bristol

    • 7th July – 31st August 2011, Summer Madness, View Art Gallery, Bristol

    • 20th – 23rd May 2011, Impact Arts Fair @ Candid Arts Trust, Islington, London

    • 4th – 28th May 2011, Drawn From Experience, SW1 Gallery, Victoria, London

    • 22nd – 31st March 2011, Fringe Artists, Guardian News And Media, Kings Place, London

    • 1st – 23rd Dec 2010, Bethlem Affordable Art Fair, Bethlem Gallery, Bethlem Royal Hospital, Kent

    • 16th – 21st Nov 2010, Auction East (for the Katmandu Arts Foundation), Five Hundred Dollars Gallery, Vyner Street, London

    • 22nd – 30th Jan 2010, Future Phase, The Arches, Southwark, London

    • 14th – 17th Dec, The Art Below Zero Christmas Art Fair, Notting Hill, London

    • 13th – 21st March 2009, At Home, Maddox Gallery, Mayfair, London

    • 17th – 29th Nov 2008, Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, Painters Hall,
London

    • 27th – 31st March 2008, Renonsense, The Crypt, Euston, London

    • 28th Feb – 2nd March 2008, Salon Contemporary, Form Art Fair, Olympia, London

    • 29th Nov – 19th Jan 2008, SaLon Contemporary, Christmas Show, Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill, London

    • 13th Sep – 15th Oct 2007, SaLon Contemporary, Autumn Show, Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill, London

    • 26th July – 10th Sep 2007, SaLon Contemporary, Summer Show, Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill, London

    • 14th June – 20th June 2007, Chelsea Fine Art Degree Show, Chelsea College of Art and Design, 16 John Islip Street, Millbank, London

    • May – Dec 2021- The Arts Council England (Develop Your Creative Practice) DYCP Grant

    • Jan 2018 – June 2019 – Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC) – The Network For Creative Enterprise (NfCE)

    • The Observer: The new review: 17th Aug 2025 - Laura Cumming review of Between Sleeping an Waking: Hospital Dreams and Visitations

    • Blog post for CultureHealthAndWellbeingAlliance (CHWA) Feb 2022

    • Front cover of British Journal of Psychiatry International May issue 2021

    • Blog post for the Bethlem Gallery, June 2020

    • Blog post for the Baring Foundation, April 2020

    • Front cover for The Baring Foundation, Creatively Minded Report, Feb 2020

    • Time Out London, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Art Review Jan 2019

    • The Lancet Psychiatry, The Meaning Of Art And Art Therapy, (comment commissioned for Matisse Trail on Art Therapy) Nov 2016

    • The Lancet Psychiatry, A Labour Of Love, (Essay written about my experiences of mental health and Art)Dec 2015

    • The Lancet Psychiatry Cover Artist 2015

    • The Lancet Psychiatry, vol 379, April 2012, The Art Of Medicine, Outsider Art

    • Front Cover Of British Journal of Psychiatry, Sept issue 2011

    • Outside In – Share Art Event Online – 21st April 2021

    • Art and Health South West – AHSW Zoom Conference – 20th Nov 2020

    • Art And Health South West – panel discussion at AHSW Conference (Diversity and Inclusion in Arts and Health) – 13th-14th Dec 2018

    • Poole Museum – Tour Of Alternative Visions – 24th March 2018

    • Science Museum, London – Science Of Mental Health – Wed 25th April 2012

  • Bethlem Museum of the Mind

    Bristol Museum and Archives

    Birmingham University

    The Wellcome Collection

    The LesMes Collection

    Norton Rose

    South London and Maudsley (SLaM)