Artist, designer and illustrator Graham Percy was a highly regarded figure in both Britain and the United States for his graphic designs, children's book illustrations – including The Wind in the Willows – as well as illustrations for adults.

This work is are from ‘The Imaginative Life and Times of Graham Percy’, a major posthumous exhibition of his work that toured throughout New Zealand. These illustrations of ‘imagined histories’ depict an eclectic host of characters who go about their activities with strangely serene and determined attitudes, as with this monk-like young man with a large kiwi strapped to his back, a literal depiction of the cultural meaning or burden we carry with us, in the form of a nocturnal, flightless bird.

The City Art Collection includes two works from ‘The Imaginative Life and Times of Graham Percy’, a major posthumous exhibition of his work which was shown at public galleries throughout New Zealand, including City Gallery Wellington. These illustrations of ‘imagined histories’ depict an eclectic host of characters who go about their activities with strangely serene and determined attitudes.

Graham Percy (born 1938, Auckland – died 2008, Surrey) graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland in 1967, winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, London, then working on illustrations for the New Zealand School Journal in the 1960s. Percy designed the typography for several Colin McCahon's exhibition invitations and set up one of New Zealand's first design consultancies. From late 1964 until the end of his life, Percy lived and worked in London as an illustrator and artist and was the production designer on the 1973 animated film Hugo the Hippo. Percy specialised in children's books, illustrating more than 100 works for children, and produced a body of his own independent art for adults.