Commemorative plates, which almost exclusively recall royal weddings, coronations and jubilees, are often associated with dusty charity shops or antique dealers. Manchester School of Art graduate Martha Tayler subverts these expectations in her ceramic artworks, replacing royal babies with imagery that reflects modern pop culture such as Stomzy’s Heavy is the Head album cover and…
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As part of her Masters at Salford University, filmmaker and spoken word poet Lissi Simpson created Mėxed. The short film combines poetry and dance to explore mixed-race people’s relationships with the word ‘frizzy’ and draws on her own experience as a bi-racial British-Jamaican woman. I caught up with Simpson ahead of the film’s screening at…
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Heavily inspired by magical realism and folk tales, Iona Monks’ etched and aquatinted prints reflect fantasy, violence and cruelty.
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Playful colours, larger than life characters, and unusual scenarios appear in the work of Steph Leighton, the third artist in our series exploring how Manchester School of Art students reacted to the early months of COVID-19 and lockdown.
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Bleach, paint, washing detergent and other household items feature in the work of Husk Bennett, the second artist in our series exploring how Manchester School of Art students are reacting to the pandemic and lockdown. Bennett is a multimedia artist who incorporates pop culture into his large-scale paintings. He says: “Despite using recognisable motifs in…
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Playful bursts of colour pop out from Hannah Fawcett’s painted collages. Intrigued by psychoanalysis, Fawcett uses digital scans of her childhood sketchbooks and primary school paintings to create vibrant textured pieces. She aims to “create a body of work which discusses and illustrates the significance of creativity within young minds.” Fawcett is the first artist…
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