Pop artist Morgan Howell is showing his giant 3D paintings of classic seven inch singles at Lauderdale House this month.
The Art of Noise features 45 RPM records by The Beatles, Cat Stevens, Buddy Holly, David Bowie, The Clash, The Kinks, Nina Simone, Prince, Pink Floyd, T.Rex, The Who, The Cure and The Rolling Stones among others.
Howell, who recently showed new works at the National Portrait Gallery and The Barbican, is collected by the likes of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, Johnny Marr, Jude Law, Fatboy Slim, director Edgar Wright, composer Hans Zimmer, and Neil Diamond.
The sculptural works are one-off supersized paintings of each single, with all the scratches and wear rendered in paint with fastidious attention to detail. The distressed and creased canvas doubles as the paper sleeves, lovingly recreating the imperfections, rips, cracked varnish, and price tags on the record - as he celebrates the communal memories evoked by the music and its personal impact on those who bought it.
The former advertising creative turned artist in later life and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Art in 2005. He started out making songs he felt a personal connection to, but now takes commissions - as long as he hasn’t painted the song before. He won't even paint the same song by a different artist or on a different label.
He starts by researching the song and finding out why it's important to the person, sometimes buying multiple copies of the record, before settling on the one he wants to paint - the more careworn and well-loved the better.
The record choice is confined to the golden age of the seven inch from the early 50s to the mid 80s when record companies like HMV, Colombia, Decca, Apple and 2Tone created their own packaging around the singles and their central label.
Howell's work hangs at the BBC HQ, his painting of David Bowie’s 'The Jean Genie' graces the wall at Sony Music, and 'Yesterday' by The Beatles is in the Capitol Building in L.A.
The Art of Noise runs at Lauderdale House in Highgate until February 5.
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