Amelia’s Magazine | Pick Me Up Graphic Arts Festival 2013: Pick Me Up Selects Review

Pick Me Up London 2013 review-MaricorMaricar donut
Banana vs Donut by MaricorMaricar.

Each year I look forward to exploring new graphic art and illustration talent at Pick Me Up, and so it was that I trundled along to Somerset House this Sunday, skirting the Marathon on the Embankment to enjoy a relatively quiet visit. First up, some of my favourite pieces from Pick Me Up Selects, the opening section where new talent is given a brilliant showcase.

Pick Me Up London 2013 review-MaricorMaricar banana
MaricorMaricar are twins who work out of Sydney in Australia – I loved their beautiful typography created with delicate embroidery, but my favourite pieces had to be their tiny artworks featuring surreal images and puns. A banana doing a somersault through a donut? Why not?!

Pick Me Up London 2013 review-Tom Edwards lion
University of Brighton graduate Tom Edwards displayed a whole wall of domestic cats and wildcats – a big hit with Snarfle, who likes to growl at anything that could potentially be a lion.

Pick Me Up London 2013 review-Katie Scott Snake
I instantly recognised the intricate work of Katie Scott, who I first spotted at her graduate show in 2011 – she makes delicate patterned artworks that remind me of old fashioned classroom anatomical aids. I’m glad to see she’s had a busy few years, creating artwork for the likes of New York Times and Phaidon.

Pick Me Up London 2013 review- Malarky
Malarky is an interesting choice for Pick Me Up, best known to many as a street artist who paints bright big toothed animals all over walls and shop fronts in east London. We couldn’t resist a little print titled Hotpot Snottini, which features one of his beasties inside a 70s casserole dish. Strange and wonderful.

Pick Me Up London 2013 review- PingsZoo
Ping Zhu goes by the very apt moniker Ping’s Zoo – loved this jungle scene, erupting with animal activity. As a follower mentioned on instagram, I love how you don’t see all the beasties straight away.

Pick Me Up London 2013 review- Hattie Stewart
We will be posting an exclusive interview with self confessed professional doodler Hattie Stewart shortly. Hattie channels the spirit of pop artists such as Keith Haring to transform glossy high fashion magazine. The likes of Vogue, Pop and Love are given outrageous makeovers, the models acquiring colourful leopard print skin and cartoonish eyes.

Pick Me Up London 2013 review- Daniel Frost
I was struck by a wall of marvellous miniatures by RCA graduate Daniel Frost, who works his stick figures in bold primary colours. Each little vignette and model is a part of his imaginary Frostville, where the strangeness of everyday life is celebrated.

Pick Me Up London 2013 review- William Goldsmith
Delicate watercolour people populate narrative illustrations by the Glasgow based William Goldsmith – these are a sneak peak at pages which feature in his upcoming graphic novel The Bind.

Pick Me Up London 2013 review-Rob Flowers squid king
The popularity of risograph prints shows no sign of waning, and their instantly recognisable muted neon colour palette was present throughout Pick Me Up. We were so smitten with this Squid King that we bought him, a bargain at £10. Rob Flowers (above and below) is inspired by mythology, folklore, early fast food merchandising and the surreal. His wall was a riot of monsters and mushrooms in a zingy range of colours.

Pick Me Up London 2013 review- Rob Flowers mushroom
Above I have covered the artists whose artworks I captured reasonably well in photos (not easy, when trying to carry a squealing baby at the same time, I’ve discovered), but there are many more of mention: fabulous Kama Sutra inspired typography by Malika Favre, surreal 3D installations by Anna Lomax, brilliant crayon portraits by Damien Florébert Cuypers, stunning retro style minimalist art inspired by everyday activities (such as painting toenails) from Sarah Vanbelle and delicate dreamlike fantasy environments by You Byun. Coming soon: my round up of the best of the rest of Pick Me Up. Make sure you catch the last few days if you haven’t already been: full listing hereRead last year’s review of Pick Me Up Selects here.

Categories ,Anna Lomax, ,Damien Florébert Cuypers, ,Daniel Frost, ,Frostville, ,Graphic Art, ,Hattie Stewart, ,Hotpot Snottini, ,illustration, ,Kama Sutra, ,Katie Scott, ,keith haring, ,Malarky, ,Malika Favre, ,MaricorMaricar, ,New York Times, ,phaidon, ,Pick Me Up, ,Pick Me Up Selects, ,Ping Zhu, ,Pings Zoo, ,rca, ,Risograph, ,Rob Flowers, ,Sarah Vanbelle, ,Snarfle, ,Somerset House, ,Squid King, ,sydney, ,The Bind, ,Tom Edwards, ,University of Brighton, ,William Goldsmith, ,You Byun

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Amelia’s Magazine | Pick Me Up London 2014: graphic arts exhibition review

Pick Me Up London graphic arts exhibition 2014 review

This year I went along to the Pick Me Up exhibition at Somerset House on a quiet weekday, giving me plenty of space to walk around the exhibits and chat to people along the way. In the Pick Me Up Selects area I was delighted to find many familiar names, including some recent graduates. Here’s a few of my favourites: there were many more so do check out this page.

Pick Me Up London graphic arts exhibition 2014 review Edward Cheverton

This cheeky airplane is by Edward Cheverton, a recent graduate of the University of Brighton. He specialises in deceptively naive collages and mini sculptures.

Pick Me Up London graphic arts exhibition 2014 review Billy

Billy (otherwise known as Alex Godwin) divides her time between the UK and Germany, creating distinctive iconographic artwork with a playful edge.

Pick Me Up Wibble Wobble by Jack Hudson

Jack Hudson graduated from UWE a few years ago. I love the way he plays with scale in images such as Wibble Wobble, above.

Pick Me UP Colourful abstraction by Linda Linko

Finnish designer Linda Linko mixes fine art with illustration and graphic design in large scale abstract artworks.

Pick Me Up Becky Liddiard horse plate

Pick Me UP Mushroom Botanic by Becky Liddiard

Moving upstairs, there were lots of exciting artworks to be discovered on the stands hosted by collectives and galleries. Works by Becky Liddiard caught my eye on two walls; firstly on this repurposed plate featuring a pair of horses, and then with her Mushroom Botanic risograph.

Pick me Up Margeux Carpentier elephantPick me Up Margeux Carpentier elephant

Pick Me Up Margaux Carpentier monkey

Pick Me Up pink leopard by Margaux Carpentier

Pick Me Up Margaux Carpentier squaw

I first discovered Margaux Carpentier at Pick Me Up in 2011 and more recently I’ve been following her on instagram, where she posts pictures of her highly patterned animals. At the Animaux Circus sign painting stand I admired her work in progress, a war squaw for the Puck Collective shields project.

Pick me up Doing the Dictator Dance, with Alec Doherty

Other works that I loved included Doing the Dictator Dance, by Alec Doherty, who is currently showing in 80s Youth, an exhibition curated by Printer of Dreams.

Pick Me Up Malarky at Beach london

Moving onto the next floor I discovered this gigantic artwork by Malarky at Beach London.

Pick Me Up - Paul Farrell

At the Unlimited stand a super sized gem print by Paul Farrell grabbed my attention.

Pick me up Hvass & Hannibal

Over at Outline Artists I was introduced to new works by Hvass & Hannibal – including this awesome jungle print.

Pick Me Up Andreas Neophytou

Andreas Neophytou produced this intriguing abstract print on lovely paper in conjunction with GF Smith.

Pick Me Up - Jessica Das roller girl

Jessica-Das-Sundance-Toucans

Isn’t this Roller Disco Girl awesome? Owner Camilla was kind enough to offer me a print of my choice, and I chose these Toucans, also by Jessica Das: she must be one of my favourite finds from this year’s Pick Me Up.

pick me up lesley barnes tiger

Over at the Handsome Frank stand I admired this lady riding a tiger, by the wonderful Lesley Barnes.

pick me up helen musselwhite

Skull, rainbows, clouds, stormy seas… papercuts by Helen Musselwhite are so damn clever.

Pick me up paul thurlby

I love to read Paul Thurlby’s Alphabet book with Snarfle. Paul Thurlby has an idiosyncratic ‘retro modern’ style that is brilliantly realised in this ace musical pussycat print.

Malika Favre bag 2014-pick me up

On my way out I was introduced to the delights of bag making with Sally Walton of Carry-a-Bag – a business she set up in response to the vast amount of plastic bags that are only ever used once. Thanks to the involvement of Outline Artists visitors were invited to choose a fabric design from the newly relaunched Heal’s Fabrics collection. Like many others I chose the fabulous Peacock design by Malika Favre. Since it was the end of my visit and I was unable to wait for the bag to be made up they kindly offered to send it to me and it arrived promptly in the post a few days after. What a delightful surprise.

Categories ,2014, ,80s Youth, ,Alec Doherty, ,Alex Godwin, ,Andreas Neophytou, ,Animaux Circus, ,Beach London, ,Becky Liddiard, ,Billy, ,Carry-a-Bag, ,Doing the Dictator Dance, ,Edward Cheverton, ,GF Smith, ,Graphic Art, ,Handsome Frank, ,Heals, ,Helen Musselwhite, ,Hvass & Hannibal, ,illustration, ,Jack Hudson, ,Jessica Das, ,Lesley Barnes, ,Linda Linko, ,Malarky, ,Malika Favre, ,Margaux Carpentier, ,Mushroom Botanic, ,Outline Artists, ,Paul Farrell, ,Paul Thurlby’s Alphabet, ,Peacock, ,Pick Me Up, ,Pick Me Up Selects, ,Printer of Dreams, ,Puck Collective, ,review, ,Roller Disco Girl, ,Sally Walton, ,Somerset House, ,Toucans, ,Unlimited, ,Wibble Wobble

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