Alan is an alchemist, turning stories, artefacts, incidents and a whole range of other material mined in the most unlikely places, into gold. An exquisite draughtsman and sublime painter, Grieve is equally precision-tooled and trenchant in his use of language. Indeed, his most effective work exists at the nexus between the image and the word; the two mediums informing, amplifying and contradicting each other to devastating effect. His gift when applying the visual to text and vice versa is to breezily expose darkness in the everyday and to leaven the sinister with irresistible wit.

Alan has exhibited widely, including SHELTER STONE – The Artist and the Mountain
(2018) and REVEAL(2023) at the Royal Scottish Academy and most recently RING OF 
TRUTH at Blackie House Library and Museum as part of the 2025 Edinburgh Art Festival.
His primary arena is the community, specifically his home city of Dunfermline which continues to be an inspiring muse. His rare genius and enthusiasm for social engagement has seen him work in prisons, tower blocks, parks, bothies, dancehalls and shopping malls, encouraging creative activity and conversations often with surprising outcomes.

Since Alan graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art with an MFA in 2008, he has become widely respected as and artist and creative agitator, building a loyal following both online and off as a committed community practitioner. He remains as unpretentious as he is talented and still wakes daily at dawn making sure to maintain his daily drawing regime