Birds and the Bees
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“Birds and the Bees”, the first solo UK exhibition by illustrator Sarah Howell, is a collection of past and present personal and commercial work celebrating all that is perverse and beautiful in nature. Naked beauties made of birds and strange colourful creatures run amok in this showcase of collage, painting and multimedia.
Sydney born illustrator Sarah Howell has been creating intricate and vivid collage work for nearly a decade. Since relocating to London her imagery has gained a great deal of attention and has appeared in advertising campaigns. She has produced commissions for international companies including Nokia, MTV, Orange, VH1, Harrods and Liberty’s. Sarah’s work has also captured the attention of record labels here and in America with commissions from EMI, Island, Polydor and GSL. After several editorial pieces in influential magazines such as Computer Arts and the dearly departed The Face, her work can be seen on the covers or between the pages of magazines such as Flaunt, Dedicate, Maxim, Commons and Sence and the visionary 125 magazine. Art publisher and author Martin Dawber wrote of Sarah’s work in Pixel Surgeons “Sarah’s images succeed as puzzling visual anagrams that freely relish the current creative media platform open to artists…. a non-conformist approach to conventional glamor is treated subversively like the DIY persuasion inherent in punk”
Sarah’s images are informed by a diverse and eclectic range of influences which is evident in the bizarre and striking work. While attending The New South Wales University College of Fine Art (Australia), Sarah discovered collage artists such as Hamilton, Blake, Stezaker who’s imagery has left an imprint on her own unique style. She creates her art through detailed layering of painting, sometimes thick and under-developed brush strokes and splatters, pencil and ink drawing and computer imagery, often using a collabrative photograph as a base for her work. The ensuing result is very odd, occassionally dark but always beautiful and captivating.