Dystopian rumination on state of the world
THIS week we talk to S Mark Gubb, whose exhibition is at Llandudno’s MOSTYN. Q
Tell us about your family.
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I’m married with a five year-old daughter. My dad is Welsh, my mum is English and I’ve one older brother who’s half-andhalf, like myself.
Q
What are you best known for?
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In my work as an artist, I make a lot of music associations and so am often associated with heavy metal, although it’s where that music sits culturally and historically that I’m really playing with. If you travelled back 25 years to the Kent coast I’d be best known for being the guitarist in a thrash metal band.
QTell us about your exhibition.
AMy exhibition ‘The Last Judgement’ is showing at MOSTYN in Llandudno, alongside an exhibition I also curated, by seminal pop artist Derek Boshier.
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When is it running from/to?
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Both shows have been running since March and close on June 30th.
Q
What can people expect?
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People can expect a fairly dystopian rumination on the state of the world today. There’s a mixture of painting and sculpture, with a very large work based on the end wall of the Sistine Chapel, featuring contemporary imagery that will be both recognisable and relatable to most people in some way. There’s also the exhibition by Derek Boshier, which draws upon almost fifty years of Derek’s practice,
across a whole host of media. Derek and his peers, which include David Hockney, Allen Jones and Peter Blake, had a massive influence on the contemporary art world of today.
Q
Tell us five things which make your exhibition great?
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It might make you laugh, it might make you cry. You can see what rural Wales looked like through the eyes of one of the UKs most successful living artists in the 70s. You can buy an original Derek Boshier print from the shop or a balloon artwork of mine for a fiver!
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Tell us what’s good about the venue M
OSTYN is a real jewel in North Wales’ crown. It’s a world-class gallery with an international programme that puts some of bigger and more highly funded galleries to shame.
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Who is your favourite artist and why?
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Two artists I’ve admired for decades are Mark Wallinger and Mike Kelley, for the kinds of subjects they discuss in their work and also in their approach to making – never settling on a single approach or media, constantly shifting and changing. I should also mention Derek Boshier. He’s retained a vitality and commitment to contemporary practice for over half a decade, embracing new ideas and ways of working throughout.
Q
What piece of work are you most proud of and why?
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In this show, that would probably be the large painting, which is the title-work of the show. It does everything I personally want from an artwork – it offers a physical experience and is bold and almost overwhelming. It’s visually playful and seductive but, at the same time, engages the viewer in a serious discussion.
QTell us a little known fact about yourself:
When I was 15 my band played at London’s legendary Marquee club, apparently making me the youngest person to have ever played there at the time.
Q
What are your best and worst habits? T his feels like a question for my wife, but I’d say, best – not eating any meat or dairy products as the intensive farming is both cruel and profoundly damaging to our planet – and, worst – still buying things from Amazon as I have a Prime subscription that’s paid up until August, at which point I promise I’ll stop using the tax-avoiding, non-living-wage paying,
behemoth.
QWhat’s next for you? What are you working on, or what do you plan to work on?
I’m interested in creativity and people, so the next things I’m working on are all collaborations. Ghostwriting the autobiography of an old friend, Danny Webster, who was a world-famous skateboarder back in the 80s, a collaboration with the writer Jon Gower and a documentary about Margate and its music scene in the 90s.
I’m also devising a project that will most likely see the formation of a Black Metal band and an album based on
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