Roll up! Roll up! Pick Me Up # 2 is now in session at the Embankment Galleries, Somerset House until 27th March. And it’s a veritable feast of graphic art.
The main upstairs space is filled with Pick Me Up Selects which offers 24 different artists’ work, all available for sale. Andy Remeter’s confident line-making and use of bold primary colours make his characters pop, and for me; maybe it was the particular yellow hue of the works at Pick Me Up, they drew visual associations with those paeans of popular culture, The Simpsons. Paul Blow’s illustrations caught my eye too, immersive, filmic and seemingly a lover of the visual quip (see boob face).
Godfather of the graphic art scene Anthony Burrill, is hosting an open studio with a collaborative theme. He’s brought in friends and students to create works on site, using the old school rules of cut, copy and paste. He’s personalised the space with a wall display, that’s positively autobiographical; there’s a chronology of his work including, his first ever work made in 1986 and an image, worthy of a novelty card, of a young Anthony with sister and pet horse Misty.
It’s Nice That are a print magazine, online resource and general all-round passionate purveyors of emerging multi-disciplinary creative talents. Their space provides meaty distraction; the opportunity to watch artists create drawings in under 30 minutes (that are then for sale) and also an excellent edit of videos, in the It’s Nice That cinema. The devil is in the detail and I liked the fact that each video was punctuated with a different holiday scene with one small animated element. Once settled with a Peroni from the bar just opposite, I was particularly moved by the metaphysical musings on life in The Eagleman Stag by Mike Please. Its poignant script was more than matched by its visuals, that were beautiful and elegiac See the trailer here
