Harry Pye
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Harry Pye is an artist, writer and event organiser. He was born in London in 1973. He completed a foundation course at Camberwell School of Art in 1991. He then studied printmaking at Winchester School of Art from 1992 to 1995. In his second year he stopped painting and printmaking and began making films. His first films were interviews with artist and tutor Bruce McLean. He has interviewed many other artists such as The Chapman Brothers, Wolfgang Tillmans and Keith Tyson for various publications including The Face and Untitled. He has also edited and published numerous art based fanzines of his own, most notably, "Harry Pye's FRANK Magazine" which ran from 1995 to 2000.
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[edit] Overview
In May 2000 he was invited to curate an exhibition at Glassbox in Paris, France. The name of this show was, "It May Be Rubbish, But It's BRITISH Rubbish". In 2002 he curated a show at The Bart Wells Institute in London Fields called, "Viva Pablo". (Reviewed by Fisun Guner for the Metro Newspaper, Thursday , August 29, 2002.) A year later he organised a group show with 100 artists called "Mothers" which took place at The Oh Art Gallery in The Oxford House of Bethnal Green and then toured to the North Edinburgh Art Centre in Scotland. Pye didn't contribute any artwork of his own to these exhibitions. According to press release material he only began making paintings of his own in 2004 having been inspired by a Royal Academy exhibition of Philip Guston and a show about Mathias Kauage at the Horniman museum which both took place in this same year.
Pye's first solo show took place at The Sartorial Art Gallery in Notting Hill in February 2007. The name of his show was, "Me, Me, Me". As well as more than twenty paintings the show featured a thirty minute video made in collaboration with artist Gordon Beswick and comedy writers and performers Richard Herring and Robin Ince. A review of the private view of "Me, Me, Me", together with images from the night can be found at www.russellherron.blogspot.com/2007/02/harry_pye.
Pye has made many collaborative paintings with other artists including Rowland Smith, Marcus Cope, Kes Richardson, James Jessop, Billy Childish, Frank Sidebottom, Sarah Sparkes, Liz Murray, Geraldine Swayne, and Mat Humphrey. Almost half of the paintings in the "Me, Me, Me" show were collaborations with Rowland Smith who Pye has known since his school days.
In April 2007 Pye won first prize in a competition to paint a portrait of Tony Blair. The competition was organised by The Daily Mirror. The judges were artists Gilbert and George. (Daily Mirror, Thursday, April 26, 2007 pages 20 & 21)
[edit] References
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Since 2005 Pye has written a column about the London art scene for the timeless Estonian newspaper, Epifanio. Pye's interview with artist Francis Upritchard is viewable on Log magazine's website or at www.saatchi_gallery.co.uk/artists/francis_upritchard_articles.htm Upritchard and Pye both contributed to the exhibition, "The Bart Wells Gang" which took place at Silesia Buildings in London Fields. There is a review of this show at this site www.art-themagazine.com/pages/london11.htm The exhibition was previewed by Chloe Kinsman of The London Evening Standard.
Pye has appeared on the independent London Radio station Resonance F.M. talking about his Desert Island Discs on two occasions. The first time he was the guest of comedian Stewart Lee and his choices included, "We Have All The Time In The World" performed by My Bloody Valentine. His second appearance was in February, 2007 on Bob & Roberta Smith's "Make Your Own Damn Music" show. This time he brought with him Adrian R. Shaw who sang, "I Want Never Gets" live in the studio with Pye on backing vocals. When promoting the "Mothers" exhibition Pye appeared on several radio shows including The Danny Baker Show and BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.
Pye is a big fan of the late D.J. John Peel so much so that he organised an exhibition named in Peel's honour. See reviews of Pye's "For Peel" show at www.fly.co.uk/fly/archives/europe_city_guidesevents/for_peel_no_more_greylondon_no.html and worldwidereview.com/_reviews/0000251.htm The exhibition took place at The No More Grey gallery in Redchurch Street, East London. The exhibition opened with a party featuring contributions from musicians Lol Coxhill and Jerry Dammers. Pye is also a big fan of the late comedian Peter Cook and assisted with the organisation of several live events in association with the Peter Cook Appreciation Society.
[edit] Further reading
- Cohen, Louise. "'People think I'm insane'", The Times, February 21, 2007, p. 15 (Times2).
- Lack, Jessica. "Pyed in full", The Guardian, March 31, 2007, pp. 7–8 (Guide). Retrieved on 2007-04-29.
www.russellheron.blogspot.com/2007/02/harry_pye
