May Day May Day

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Mayday is a distress signal and May Day was a traditional springtime holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. It also refers to various anarchist, socialist and labour movement celebrations to commemorate the Haymarket Riot of 1886 and the international socialist movement generally.

Reid’s work has always involved a fusion of the political, the spiritual and a culture in distress, very often blurring the boundaries between art, design and critical response. It is now 30 years since he took the Beaton portrait of the Queen, tore out her eyes and mouth, put a safety pin through her lips and stuck swastikas in her eyes. These were not just a pieces of design, they were part of an assault on culture, and possibly the last time that art was truly shocking to the establishment whilst having a genuine radical effect on a whole generation.

Before this Reid had been at art college with Malcolm McLaren where he developed his interest in radical politics and situationist tactics, which in turn informed the visual language developed with the Suburban Press, a community free press based in the then ‘developing’ Croydon. In this early period it’s very clear to see the links between Reid’s concerns with the esoteric as well as the political, with colour and drawing as well as collage and direct graphics. These are all recurring throughout his career and to this day whether it be through social protest or intensely beautiful abstract paintings, Reid’s alternative vision is still as challenging and uncontainable as ever.

This exhibition will show over a hundred pieces from his own collection that spans his career. From exquisite early drawings and paintings including the stunning “Monster on Nice Roof”, to Suburban Press protest stickers; from original God Save the Queen collages and other ‘punk’ art to later social protest and esoteric paintings; this show is not intended as a true or complete retrospective but rather a clarification of the importance of Reid’s work as a contemporary artist.

May Day May Day is the first stage in a project celebrating the life & work of Jamie Reid that will continue on the streets of Shoreditch in September 2007.

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