Gary grew up in Dagenham in Essex in a single parent family. His mum worked a lot to provide for them, so Gary would often come home from school to an empty house, which left him with freedom to misbehave. He discovered at an early age that he found being naughty was a lot more fun than being good.
While he was in school, Gary came into contact with a group of people selling fake clothing and he started taking some of it into school to sell.
After he left education, Gary often used his size to my advantage by taking on jobs that required an intimidating demeanour like a doorman, debt collector or bodyguard. He soon realised he had earned more selling fake clothing at school than when he had a full time job, so he decided to stay in the business of selling fake goods.
One day, Gary was asked to pick up some reels of fake clothing labels for a supplier. He had just collected the two bags of labels and put them into his car when he saw police cars racing into the car park.
“Before I knew it, I was pulled into a police car and I watched as they opened my car boot and the bags with the reels in. The packages inside were brown and square and it crossed my mind that I’d never seen reels packaged like that before.”
He was driven to the police station where they told him he was being charged with suspicion of involvement in the importation of approximately fifty kilos of class A drugs.
He’d never been involved with drugs before, so this was a huge shock. Understandably, Gary was scared and confused when he was told what the packages contained, but mostly he was angry.
“I was angry because I knew drug dealers and other criminals, but I’d made a conscious decision to stay out of that world and not commit those crimes. The people involved in importing these drugs had taken that choice away from me.”
In August 1994, Gary was sentenced to prison, where he served seven years.
Gary knew he wanted to change his behaviours. He began by looking at different skills he could learn so that when he was released, he could earn an honest living.
“I looked at the available courses: hairdressing, maths, English and art. I remembered I didn’t mind art at school; I was never good at it but it was always the class where you’d have a laugh with your friends without really having to learn anything. So I enrolled in art class.”
When Gary went to his first class, he met his art tutor, who, within a week, had inspired him. Gary was asked to draw a portrait of Steven Berkoff. It was meant to be a 2 hour project, but he spent the whole weekend doing it. When he went back to class to show his tutor, his mouth fell open; he was so happy that he had connected with a student and Gary was happy that he had found something he was genuinely good at – besides crime! From then on, Gary fell in love with art and dreamed of becoming a conceptual artist.
Gary wrote 32 letters to artists that had inspired him, expecting only one or two replies. He ended up receiving 28 letters from the likes of Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas, who told him how important it is to have someone like Gary in the art world.
“I turned from a world of crime to the world of art so quickly that I refer to myself as some kind of ‘born again artist’.”
Two weeks before he left prison, Gary enrolled in the University of East London to study art. He was released in October 2001 at nine in the morning, and by eleven thirty that same day, he was attending his first lecture at university.
“I was the happiest person in that room by a mile – I was free and I was studying art!”
After he had established himself in the art world, Gary began to reflect on how his time in prison had changed him as a person. The idea that his identity had been changed at the hands of someone else weighed heavily on his mind and made him wonder: am I a better or a worse person because of their intervention in my life?
“I decided I wanted to show others how their involvement in someone else’s life can sometimes damage them, but it can also add value to their life.”
He came up with the idea of using artwork as a metaphor for a person and their identity. Gary asked other artists if they would be willing to donate a piece of their artwork to damage in some way to see whether changing the identity of their artwork would add or decrease its value.
“I was amazed at how many well-known artists came together to donate their art, including Sarah Lucas, Gavin Turk and Ray Richardson. My first exhibition, titled “Face Value” was a real success and I received art donations from thirty different artists!”
As well as making art and running these exhibitions, Gary created a podcast called Ministry of Arts, where he speaks to other artists who have come from all walks of life, including those involved in the criminal justice system, people using art as a way to get off the streets, or world-famous artists who have won the Turner Prize. He also continues to share his story by giving talks to people in prisons, universities and schools, as well as sitting on the board of the Koestler Trust with the hope that he can inspire people to explore their passions, regardless of their past.
“Being accepted into a world I never thought I could belong to has shown me that you should never be ashamed of your past. For some time, I was embarrassed of my history, but I took ownership of it and used it as a building block for moving forward. I now realise that I’ve got to where I am today because of it. Going to prison and falling in love with art changed my life, my outlook and my identity – but I’m glad it did.”
