Exhibition
HARRY PYE - VALUES - Sartorial Contemporary Art
Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?" - Paul Gauguin
"You fed me, you bred me, I'll remember your name" - Kevin Rowland
VALUES is my third show at Sartorial. A lot has happened since my last show ("Getting Better") in March 2009 - some good, some bad, some weird. I moved house and changed studios, I even visited Estonia. I was artist in residence at the Highland Institute for Contemporary Art. I found myself painting less but thinking more. I started to write lyrics and formed a band called The Values. I also experimented with Gordon Beswick on film and animation projects that were screened at both Tate Modern (as part of their Soul For Sale show) and Tate Britain (as part of the Rude Britania).
This exhibition is similar to my previous two shows in that it reflects where I am at the moment. Something else that hasn't changed is that I still paint and pay tribute to the people who shaped me and feeded my imagination. The working title Peter Blake and Jann Haworth used for the cover of Sgt Pepper was "People We Like". There are a lot of people who I like and see as reasons to be cheerful featured in this show.
However, there have been some developments and for the first time there is also an interactive mult-media element to the exhibition. It would really mean a lot to me if, as well as coming to the gallery to see the work in the flesh, you also took the trouble to visit the Values' MySpace page (www.myspace.com/thevalues) You-Tube (www.youtube.com/teambeswickandpye) and if possible, listen to the free C.D given away to visitors to Sartorial. Everything is connected so I really hope as many of you get to hear the songs as well as see the paintings.
The exhibition features some paintings I made in collaboration with Gordon Beswick, Marcus Cope and Rowland Smith. I would like to thank them and everyone at Sartorial for making this show possible. The private view of "Values" co-incides with the launch of Sartorial's in house publication - Rebel magazine. A limited edition of the magazine come with a free C.D (The Values "Do Something" e.p)
