I’ve been supporting myself though my art since 2015. After the pandemic my income severely dropped due to changes in the global economy & art industry. I was living in London however post-pandemic I moved to Manchester to reduce my rent, only then to move to my hometown Darlington as Manchester prices increased rapidly.
My savings were used up in order to cover rent & 2024 was the first year in over a decade where I hadn’t been offered an exhibition, severely affecting my income.
I moved from Darlington to study Art at Goldsmiths in 2001 & studied Sculpture at the Royal College of Art. For 24 years art has been my primary focus in life. Over the past decade I’ve had the opportunity to build up a large body of work and exhibit internationally.
I’ve been very frugal with my earnings over this period, investing most of it (after living expenses) back into my practice. I couldn’t have foreseen the economic fallout from the pandemic. Luckily I’d saved my money which could be used as financial support during this sales/opportunity downturn.
I attempted to reduce my financial pressure further by moving to locations with lower living costs. However after all this, compounded with my lowered income from sales of my paintings I have found myself in a position where buying new materials has become an economic demand that I am struggling with.
I have an unbroken stretch of making work for over 20 years and despite this moment of lower income/opportunity I feel it is important for me to maintain production & development of my paintings in order to maintain momentum with my practice.
I see this current situation as a temporary hurdle and don’t wish to be sabotaged by my financial position, which has led me to this application.
If I am am awarded support from this fund it will alleviate my current economic stress & demands in regard to living expenses whilst granting me the time & money to invest in new materials to continue developing & producing a new work.
I was born in Darlington and grew up in Darlington. I moved to London in 2001 to study Fine Art at Goldsmiths & the Royal College of Art and I now live back in Darlington where I also have my studio. If I was to awarded this prize it would be an honour to represent my hometown and produce a new body of work to exhibit here that was also made here.
Artist Statement With a copy & paste approach akin to the Situationists misappropriation of cultural & consumer information Michael Pybus reimagines contemporary culture by remixing the icons, brands and franchises which permeate our lives. Creating Frankenstein hybrids which appear reassuringly familiar yet decidedly warped. From painting & sculpture to designing clothing & installing complete IKEA furniture showrooms in galleries, his installations blur the boundaries between high, low and everything in- between. Pybus explores the manipulation of history, society & communication by our omnipresent virtual technologies. Through offline analogue mediums such as painting he reconfigures our visual environment much like one may augment with smartphone filters or edit a meme. His aesthetic reinterpretations alters images to challenge their authority in our visual environment, redirecting them to new readings to challenge the values we place on cultural artefacts, consumer iconography & displays of socio-economic class. In our hyperreal age of social media Pybus often pokes fun at what we accept real & authentic. From his identity as an artist – the clichéd ‘original’ – to the narratives we curate though our consumer choices, online personas & aesthetics. He dissects the scaffolding that informs how we process & contextualise the wealth of competing information we are subjected to daily. Lifting the curtain to reveal the absurd & nonsensical mechanics that operate below the surface & in the shadows of contemporary life. Artist Biography Michael Pybus born (b 1982 Darlington, UK Lives & works in Darlington) has exhibited extensively including solo shows in London, Ghent, New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Singapore, Houston, Dallas, Kentucky, Mallorca & Stockholm.
His work is included in the collections of the Arts Council Britain, Takashi Murakami (JP), Zabludowicz (UK), Philippos Tsangrides (GR), Popov (RUS) & private collections in USA, UK, Brazil, Ireland, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, Netherlands, Malta, Belgium, Greece, Germany, Spain, Taiwan, France, Switzerland, Japan, Italy, Canada, Australia & China. From 2013-2015 he ran WELCOME SCREEN – a gallery he built in his home which hosted 18 exhibitions from artists across the globe.
2006 – 08 Sculpture MA Royal College of Art, London UK
2001 – 04 Fine Art BA (Hons) Goldsmiths College, London UK
Not currently but between 2013-2015 I built and ran a gallery in the converted factory I lived in, in London called WELCOME SCREEN, where I hosted 18 exhibitions over the 2 years from artists across the globe.
GQ – 15 Best Artists working today – https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/gallery/best-artists-to-invest-in
Time Out London review of my exhibition “soft play” at Lungley Gallery – https://www.timeout.com/london/art/michael-pybus-soft-play
Interview with Artland Magazine – https://magazine.artland.com/anything-can-happen-life-especially-nothing/
Dateagle Magazine Interview – https://dateagle.art/michael-pybus-interview/
Address: 40 Leafield Road, Darlington, County Durham, DL1 5DF, GB
