Joe Simpson’s exhibition ‘Musician Portraits’ was shown in a pop-up gallery in Soho, London in October 2011. The project is a series of paintings of famous singers and musicians including Brandon Flowers, Mark Ronson, Paloma Faith, Maxi Jazz, David Gray, Jamie Cullum and Ezra Koenig (Vampire Weekend) who have all sat for the project.
There are 22 paintings in the series, each piece Oil on Canvas, sized 60 x 60 cm. Joe approached his favourite musicians from a wide range of musical genres and nationalities to include in the series. Once the subjects agreed to be included in the series, Joe met up with each artist to take original photographs to work from to create an original oil painting. Each painting typically takes a little under two weeks to complete.
Over a year in the making, the project has been as much a challenge in making contact with the subjects and persuading them to be apart of the series. The project has taken Joe all over the country - to visiting the musician’s houses and studios, to backstage at arena concerts and festivals and as far as Las Vegas to meet Brandon Flowers.
Joe’s portrait of Maxi Jazz from the series was shortlisted for the prestigious BP Portrait Award 2011. The painting has been exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery in an exhibition which has been the most popular show in the gallery’s history. Because the painting is committed to the BP Portrait Award’s touring exhibition, with Maxi’s permission Joe created a new, portrait for his solo show.
Speaking on the idea behind the pieces, Joe said “I’ve tried to root each painting in a tradition of painted portraiture – each piece has a quiet, still and almost introspective feel to them. I’d tried to capture the way that each person held themselves when I met them, usually I didn’t give the musicians a great deal of direction, or plan how I wanted the piece to turn out. These paintings have a physicality to them that you don’t get with a photograph, the paint has a specific weight and application - you can see layers and brushmarks in the hair and skin tones. I’m really excited to see all the paintings together for the first time.”
After the exhibition the paintings will be sold. 25% of the sale will be donated to ‘Seeing is Believing’ (www.seeingisbelieving.org) - a global initiative to tackle avoidable blindness. Standard Chartered will match the total donation from the sales.
You can buy posters and postcards from the exhibition here: http://joesimpson.bigcartel.com/
