ARTIST 09
SURREALISM / ILLUSTRATION
ROCHESTER · ILLUSTRATOR / FINE ARTIST
A Rochester artist creating glowing creatures, strange landscapes and surreal worlds that look beautiful right up until something starts watching you back.
Graham Yarrington grew up around Rochester, New York, before leaving to study illustration at Pratt Institute.
He remained in Brooklyn for a decade, developing his work in the middle of the city’s gallery, illustration and street-art cultures before returning home to live and work in Rochester.
Graham uses ink and gouache to create surreal creatures inhabiting barren, glowing and sometimes apocalyptic worlds.
His figures feel ancient and unfamiliar, like spirits, monuments or witnesses left behind after something enormous happened just outside the frame.
His work combines electric pop surrealism with the clean visual language of vintage illustration and the immediacy of street art.
The color can be playful, psychedelic and inviting, but there is usually something darker moving underneath it.
PRETTY WEIRD. WEIRDLY PRETTY.
Open space, forests and the natural surroundings of upstate New York continue to influence Graham’s imagined environments.
Mountains, trees, glowing skies and impossible terrain become the foundations for dreamlike places that feel familiar without belonging anywhere real.
Graham’s distinctive visual world has moved beyond gallery walls into editorial work, music, merchandise and collaborative projects.
His clients have included The New York Times, Warner Bros., Phish, The Grateful Dead and Elton John.
FREQUENTLY FOUND OUT THERE
It looks like a dream.
PROBABLY DON’T FALL ASLEEP THERE.
SHOP