An art and design company founded by London-based illustrator Mark Anthony, Exhibit 69 embodies contemporary punk culture distinctly through bold colours, typography, and visual references to pop culture. A portfolio of hand-painted leather garments shows a strong influence of the artists’ time assisting world-renowned graffiti artist D*Face, though it goes without saying that Exhibit 69 has developed their own unique style that “offers a fresh perspective to fashion and art”.
More recently, I go through hell to show you love is a mixed media piece on scrap granite. It highlights the artists’ experimentation with surface material; in turn opening up more opportunity for developing innovative ideas that steers away from painting leather clothing as a device for rebelling against societal expectations. References to comic-book figures and typography within Exhibit 69’s work is used to tell a story of the artists’ life experiences and challenges; in a way it feels like we are being presented with a snippet of the artist’s thoughts and feelings regarding stigmas set by an often prejudiced society.
Cleverly, the subject is integrated into the surface of the dark granite, using this as a mechanism for creating shadows and additional texture, rather than simply using an art medium to fill in the space.
It would be interesting to see this style as shown in I go through hell to show you love in both small and larger scales, perhaps using other scrap materials as a surface material to create a similar integration of art medium and canvas. Overall, Exhibit 69’s interdisciplinary practice is creative, personal, political and individual; there is much potential for the branding and creative development of this artist to grow!
Words by Chloe Copley
