Paul Gorman

Exhibitions

Photography: Willie Christie on the (No Pussyfooting) cover

No Pussyfooting front
//Front cover (No Pussyfooting), Fripp & Eno, EG/Island, 1973.//

The final piece in Tate Modern’s current Yayoi Kusama show – her dramatic Infinity Mirror Room – brought to my vinyl-fixated mind one of the greatest record sleeves of all time: the gatefold for (No Pussyfooting), the album released in 1973 by Brian Eno and Robert Fripp.

All of a piece with the music it packages – prismatic, playful, calm, cerebral, oblique – the four-part composition was photographed and designed at Eno’s behest by photographer/filmmaker Willie Christie.

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John Frankland on Damien Hirst – The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011

Sculptor John Frankland is a near-contemporary of Damien Hirst’s; both studied at Goldsmith’s in the 80s and their work has been included in the same group shows and prominent collections.

I asked John for his take on the grand Gagogo gesture of The Complete Spot Paintings, the exhibition which has “taken over the planet” (according to some press reports) by showing 1500 examples of one of the artist’s signature works across the 11 Gagosian galleries.

John visited the London shows, in Britannia Street and Davies Street.

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Show soundtrack: Wigged out instros, cracked pop novelties, girl groups, soul, surf, punk, new wave + rock & roll classics

Playlists for soundtrack to Lloyd Johnson: The Modern Outfitter
//Lloyd's lists.//

Popular music and the surrounding culture has been the primary inspiration for Lloyd Johnson’s work, so it’s important that The Modern Outfitter – which opens today at London gallery Chelsea Space – reflects the guiding relationship between sounds and vision with an especially selected soundtrack.

Continue reading Show soundtrack: Wigged out instros, cracked pop novelties, girl groups, soul, surf, punk, new wave + rock & roll classics

Lloyd Johnson exhibition install Day 5: Record sleeves, magazines + photography

Lloyd Johnson exhibition install: Day 5

Album sleeves, photography, magazines and a variety of press cuttings and ephemera underline the widespread recognition for Lloyd Johnson’s designs over the decades. Lloyd paid particular attention to them in the assemblage of the contents of the table-top vitrines and a wall collage on the fifth day of the exhibition installation just before the weekend.

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Lloyd Johnson exhibition install day 3: Pop art prints

Lloyd Johnson exhibition install: Day 3

Now the exhibition is getting to the nitty-gritty; yesterday Lloyd paid particular attention to the area dedicated to his businesses Cockell & Johnson and Johnson & Johnson, which produced peacock dandy and pop art fashion between 1968 and 1974 in Kensington  Market. Above are the print shirts which will be displayed, below some of the detail – on the left a stockinged leg print designed by Jane Wentworth (then Wealleans), who has contributed to my Tommy Roberts book.

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Lloyd Johnson exhibition install day 1: Kensington Market shop frontage recreated

Lloyd Johnson exhibition install: Day 1.

The installation of the the Lloyd Johnson exhibition got off to a flying start yesterday.

The key piece – a reconstruction of the 80s frontage of Johnson’s Kensington Market boutique – was made and put in place by the crack team headed by Rod Holt at Mojo Creative Productions.

“I had the three pieces of glass signage in storage,” says Johnson. “I gave those to Rod with a photograph from back in the day and he and his guys pulled off a major triumph by putting it together.”

Johnny "Mono" Graham, Johnson's Kensington Market, 80s.
Original fascia: Johnny "Mono" Graham outside Johnson's Kensington Market 1980s. Photographer unknown.

Continue reading Lloyd Johnson exhibition install day 1: Kensington Market shop frontage recreated