Harry Pye C.V. and statement

Harry Pye was born in London in 1973. He graduated from Winchester School of Art in 1995 after completing a degree in Fine Art Pritmaking. As part of his course he undertook an artist placement with the sculptor Bruce McLean. From 1995 to 2000 he edited and published his own zine, Harry Pye's Frank Magazine. He then curated exhibitions of other people's paintings for 5 years. At the age of 30 he began to paint again. Since then his paintings have been selected for shows at The Barbican, Calvert 22, The Discerning Eye Mall Gallery, The Bankside Gallery, The Creekside Art Gallery, festivals such as Elefest and Deptford X and The Royal Academy Summer Show. His paintings were also selected for two shows at Tate Modern ('Save Our Souls' and 'Inside Job'). Pye paintings have appeared on record sleeves for Roland Gift, videos for Francis Macdonald, Neil Innes and Nigel Planer, posters on the London underground and on the cover of the Tate Staff Handbook. His work has also appeared in numerous publications including; The Times, The Guardian, The Evening Standard, Frieze, and Turps Banana. His collaborative exhibition with Jasper Joffe ('Joffe et Pye') got a rave review on BBC Radio 4. Speaking on Saturday Review, Ekow Eshun's response to the show was: "intense feelings about love, loneliness and fear, anxiety, desire and hope and ambition all came into play in these paintings. Very powerful I thought. What could have been fey, arch, or game playing was actually very warm." Pye was the winner of a Daily Mirror 'Paint Tony Blair' Competition judged by Gilbert and George. The Week magazine said of Harry's work: "Pye's apparent naivety is accompanied by a strong sense of construction and design. Their directness and humour are appealing." The critic Ana Finel Honigman described him as one of "London's premiere puckish artists and curators" whist the author Stephen Ellcock believes: "Harry Pye’s playful, skewed and slyly subversive visions of a brighter , better reality are the perfect antidote to a world of woe. His paintings are a delightful and, at times , poignant riposte to all the po-faced, cynical and joyless cultural landfill cluttering up the place." Pye had a solo show at the Thomas Cohn Gallery in Sao Paulo. His work has also been included in group shows at Tom Christoffersen's gallery and David Risley's gallery both in Denmark, The Westend Projekt Space in Holland, The Hell gallery in Australia, and the Charlie Dutton Gallery in China, Platform Projects in Greece. Later this year he will have a painting included in a show at The M Galleries in Washington, USA. Artist statement: "My paintings are about my feelings. I don't always paint alone - my paintings of people I love are often made in collaboration with people who have been my closest friends for decades. I paint to distract myself, to educate myself and to cheer myself up. The paintings are postcards to the world. I think a few of my paintings are sad and quite a few of the paintings are funny. Recently the critic Neal Brown told me my work was "compelling" because he felt it contained "fun, laughter, pleasure, poetic sentiment, intimacy, and bittersweet reflective melancholy." Last year I co-curated a group show called 'Nature' in Estonia with August Kannapu. I made a series of paintings of cows because I'm fascinated by the way they are seen as comical or something you can use to make hamburgers by some and worshipped like Gods by others. I'm interested in life's ironies and how life is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy to those who feel."

Above: Image One: 'William Blake and his Tyger' (2025) Acrylic on canvas credited to Harry Pye and Rowland Smith

Above: Image Two: 'Sometimes A Cigar Is Just A Cigar' (2026) A3 screenprint credited to Harry Pye and Chris Tosic

Above: Image Three: 'Whatever Works' credited to Harry Pye and Rowland Smith

Above: Image Four 'King Harold' credited to Harry Pye

Above: Image Five: 'Live Long and Prosper' credited to Harry Pye and Rowland Smith

Above: Image Six: 'Secretary Bird' (2021) 65cm x 90cm acrylic on canvas credited to Harry Pye

Above: Image Seven: 'Today Deptford, Tomorrow The World' (2026) acrylic on canvas 65cm by 90cm. Credited to Harry Pye and Rowland Smith

Above: Image Eight: 'I'm Joan Collins and You're Not' acrylic on canvas credited to Harry Pye and Rowland Smith

Above: Image Nine: 'Willy Wonka' (2021) Acrylic on canvas credited to Harry Pye

Above: Image Ten 'Flowers' (2023) 15cm by 21cm acrylic and marker pen on canvas

The TOP TRUMPS exhibition in London and Ramsgate

Top Trumps is an exhibition that features artwork by Magda Archer, Peter Blake, Bula Chakravarty, Adam Dant, Edie Flowers, Georgia Hayes, Lyndon Hayes, John Hegley, Alice Herrick, Jumpei Kinoshita, James Lawson, Francis Macdonald, Julia Maddison, Raksha Patel, Martin Rowson, Adrian R. Shaw, Rowland Smith, Suzanne Spiro, Rebekah Sunshine, Twinkle Troughton, Sandra Turnbull. 

William Hogarth owned a pug that he named Trump. Hogarth included Trump the pug in several of his paintings including his famous 1745 self portrait which is often on display at Tate Britain. 25 years ago a statue of  Hogarth and Trump (made by Jim Mathieson) was unveiled outside Hogarth's House in Chiswick. Sir Peter Blake wanted to help raise funds for the Hogarth Trust so he made prints of  a drawing that he had made of Trump. Curator Harry Pye invited artists he admired to produce a pug portrait of their own. It's up to the viewer to decide which dog is best in show. The collection of Trumps will feature as part of a big group show called 'Smiley Smile' happening at hARTS Lane gallery, 17 Harts Lane, New Cross, SE14, 5UP in March and will then tour to The Wooden Box Gallery, 92 High Street, Ramsgate CT11 9RX in April.  ‘Smiley Smile' opens on Wednesday the 11th of March and there will be an opening party from 5pm till 8pm. On Thursday the 12th, Friday the 13th and Saturday the 14th, the show is open to the public between 11am and 6pm. 'Top Trumps' then travels to Ramsgate. The show, at Wooden Box Gallery, will be hung on Friday 17th April. There will be a special lunchtime event on Saturday 18th. The gallery will then be open on Sunday 19th, Monday 20th, and Tuesday 21st from 10.30am to 3.30pm, but please call ahead: 07990596674.

Above: Pug portrait by Georgia Hayes

Above: Pug portrait by Martin Rowson

Above: Pug portrait by Rowland Smith

Above: Pug portrait by Jumpei Kinoshita

Above: Pug portrait by Suzanne Spiro

Above: Pug portrait by Sir Peter Blake

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About the artists...

Follow Jumpei

https://www.instagram.com/jumpei_kinoshita/

Follow Rebekah

https://www.instagram.com/rebekah.sunshine/

Follow James

https://www.instagram.com/james_lawson_art/

Smiley Smile

 

Smiley Smile is based around four different artists: Fabienne Jenny Jacquet, Pierre Julien, Harry Pye, and Kelda Storm. The title of the show comes from the name of an old Beach Boys album which featured the hit single 'Good Vibrations'. The aim of the exhibition is to keep hope alive and give people some reasons to be cheerful. 

"The more I find out about people, the more I like my dog." Mark Twain

"My paintings are acts of love." Francis Picabia

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Fabienne Jenny Jacquet creates dark, sensual and moody figurative art with a touch of humour based on her experience as a female outsider. Her subjects are often awkward and uncomfortable, their bodies twisted in unnatural poses or stumbling, limbs distorted and flesh exposed. They might be breaking apart or teetering on the edge of the abyss, but they are also triumphant challengers of the status quo clawing their way to freedom. Beautiful losers and angry waifs. These paintings tell stories of isolation, otherness, body shaming, sex, beauty, ugliness and death. To articulate her vision of the world, the artist explores the physicality of paint through thick, luscious layers and tactile textures. She uses expressive brush strokes, dripping paint and free, broad gestures to create instinctive compositions with loose outlines. Her work conveys a mixture of fragility and strength and an ongoing sense of urgency. Source material for her paintings include images from vintage magazines, photographs taken by the artist and references to popular culture and art history which are then merged with her own memories and emotions. This gives the work a feeling of relatable universal longing and of hope against all odds. 

Pierre Julien has been painting portraits of people he works with at the Tate Gallery since 2022. So far over 100 friends and colleagues have posed for him. The images can be seen on social media platforms such as Insta and Facebook. Pierre started working at the Tate in 2013 with the company Wilson James and has worked for Tate directly since 2016 as a Visitor Assistant. Pierre describes working at Tate as being a privilege because there is a "constant influx of artists and legacies."   

Harry Pye is presenting 'Top Trumps' which is his collection of artworks made in response to  William Hogarth's painting of his pet pug. (At time of writing) The esteemed artists lending a work are; Bula Agbo, Magda Archer, Peter Blake,  Adam Dant, Edie Flowers, Georgia Hayes, Lyndon Hayes, John Hegley, Jumpei Kinoshita, Peter Jones, James Lawson, Lee Maelzer, Raksha Patel, Adrian R. Shaw, Rowland Smith, Rebekah Sunshine, Suzanne Spiro, Twinkle Troughton, and Sandra Turnbull. 

Kelda  Storm makes vibrant and playful artwork created from her colour-saturated world; every image, every artwork carries meaning, or narrative elements. Lips feature heavily as they are the ultimate feminine iconography that serve to sexualise and sensualise and are also a symbol of voice and freedom. The artist says "I present a duality that sits between the joyous and serious. Along with my brash colour palette, the artwork I produce is deliberately minimal; almost stripped to just what you need to see…"

Image above:

Title: ‘’Like a fish out of water” by Fabienne

Medium: oi on oil paper

Size: 30 x 35 cm (framed)

Year: 2025

Find out more about Fabienne: HERE

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Image above:

Title: ‘’Doublespeak” by Kelda 

Medium: Screenprint

Size: 50x70cm (Edition of 10)

Year: 2025

Find out more about Kelda: HERE

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Image above:

Title: ‘’The Artist's Pug" by Sir Peter Blake (from the collection of Harry Pye)

Medium: Signed art print

Size: 

Year: 2000

Find out more about Harry: HERE

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Image above:

Title: ‘’Derek Jordan' by Pierre

Medium: Acrylic on mountboard

Size: 45cm by 60cm

Year: 2023

Find out more about Pierre: HERE

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We set up and hang all the work on Wednesday the 11th of March and have a party from 5pm till 8pm. On Thursday the 12th, Friday the 13th, Saturday the 14th we are open to the public between 11am and 6pm. On Sunday 15th we have everything taken away by 12 midday.

Look back at 2025

 January 2025. On New Year's Day I made a collage called 'Vote For Pedro'. I have a vague plan to make a collage every month and then add 12 collages together at the end of the year

Jan 2025 got off to a bad start with dental problems. I experienced the worst pain I'd had for more than a decade. A root canal op got cancelled when the tooth cracked open so at least I saved money.

Lloyd Ellis decided to leave the Tate Gallery after 24 years loyal service. I got my talented friends Thomas Hawes and Chris Tosic to help me make a card for him. 

Gordon Beswick and I do a little bit of filming. 

We have a great time in the studio with Micko Westmoreland, Julian Firth, Craig Crosbie, Kevin Eldon and Paul Putner (pictured below). I'd never met Paul before but had always been a fan of his since the mid 90s.

Go to see the feel good film 'A Complete Unknown' and love Edward Norton's portryal of Pete Seeger. 

My first painting of 2025 is a portrait of Roj Blake from Blake's 7. In 2024 I had painted 6 other cast members of the Blake's 7 series. I have yet to exhibit them anywhere. Roj Blake is probably the least successful of my Blake's 7 portraits - I fail to capture the actor Gareth Thomas's character.

Instead of painting characters from Blake's 7 I decide to paint Cows. I find it interesting how to some Cows are just something you can make hamburgers out of whilst in other parts of the world they are seen as Gods.

Febuary 2025 

Sadly much of this month is spent going to the doctors, the pharmacist, and feet experts because of problems with blisters on my toes related to diabetes type 2. 

On a happier note I get to hang out with supergroup The Spammed who are recording a cover of 'Devil Gate Drive' for a new Specialized compilation CD which will be sold in aid of worthy causes such as Tonic and Teenage Cancer Trust. On this occassion thehe band are:

Above: Mick "Woody" Woodmansey (drums), Terry Edwards (sax and flute), Horace Panter (bass) Micko Westmoreland (guitar) plus Paul Cuddeford (lead guitar), Kevin Eldon (backing singing) and below: Hannah Hu (lead vocals)

Also in Feb Gordon Beswick and I do more filming, this time with Eve Ferrett, Gerry King, and Dorian Crook.  

I visit the Heyward gallery for the first time in ages and really enjoy the Mickalene Thomas: 'All About Love' exhibition.

March 2025

John Moore invites me to do a painting of his band Black Box Recorder. I worry that at least one of the 3 members of the band wont like it but he assures me they all love it. A t-shirt featuring my image goes on sale. The t-shirt is aimed at new fans who've become interested after BBR were championed by Billie Ellish. Below is a pic I took of a friend modelling one of the t-shirts for me. They are available to buy from: HERE

April 2025 

Jared Shiller invited me to draw presenters of Watchdog for his new Watchdog fanzine. I was delighted to see my drawing of Anne Robinson on the cover of issue one of 'I'm Not Buying It'.

Enjoy Corin Johnson's exhibition at Fitzrovia Chapel. My nephew Albert films the show (which includes a sculpture of Don Letts) as part of a documentary he is making.

The amazing artist Pierre Julien unveils his portrait of me. I am wearing my work uniform and a lanyard that is covered in badges.

Above: Esteemed photographer Robert Greshoff comes to my flat in Ramsgate and tries to capture my delicate features. The photo is for his 'Kent Artists Project.

Below: Four of my Cow Paintings

May 2025

Main event of May is the Four Elements exhibition at hART's Lane in New Cross.

The 4 person show was praised by Neil Brown for containing  "fun, laughter, pleasure, poetic sentiment, intimacy, and bittersweet reflective melancholy . . . all in the context of a compelling, contemplative engagement." 

It's the first time the painting Rowland Smith and I made of John Cleese and Graham Chapman is exhibited.

The painting of John Cleese was made in 2024 to celebrate his 85th birthday. The painting of Graham Chapman came along a little later. I talk more about the Cleese and Chapman Diptych." HERE

June 2025

(Above): Tate legend Derek Jordan and Rock legend Pete Townshend meet for the first time at a book signing and become pals in the mall.  

In other news I am contacted by a Hungarian man living in Australia whose name is Zoltan he wants to interview me for a website called Neon Vandal. He seems like a good guy. Read the interview: HERE 

July 2025

Above: My drawing of Noel Coward which is titled:

"Work is more fun than fun"

I had a great evening with lovely people celbrating the video promo Gordon Beswick and I made for 'Femme Fatale' by Nigel Planer & The Values featuring Johnny Turnbull. 

Watch the promo for Femme Fatale: HERE

It tells you all about The Specilized Project and the good work they do. The C.D. compilation that features The Spammed performming Devil Gate Drive as well as Nigel Planer sing Femme Fatale is called 'Femme Her Anthem' I bought it and was delighted by it.

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Above: Have great fun organising The Second Ramsgate Affordable Print Fair at The Front Room Gallery.

Above: I spend a very pleasant afternoon with comedian Mark Steel and his co writer Pete Sinclair. Delighted that I'm one of the people they ask to talk about Lewisham with as part of their fantastic radio series, 'Mark Steel Comes To Town' 

Pierre Julien decides to paint my portrait for a second time.

In the 1720s the poet Alexander Pope wrote The Dunciad which was an attack on bad journalists. Nick Revell and the cartoonist Martin Rowson re-wrote the poem as a performance piece for 12 voices called The Untsiad. On the 20th of July I went to The Cockpit in Gateforth Street to see the show. The cast included Stewart Lee, Arthur Smith, Mark Steel, Rosie Holt, Eliza Carthy, Tim McInnerny, Clare Ferguson-Walker, Jack Klaff, Matt Copson, Nick Revell and Martin Rowson. Everyone was great I was very impressed. I took this photo below of Nick Revell just a few moments after he came off stage.

August 2025

Musicians Matt Baxter, Nick Canning, Andrew Mackey, Toni Manuel & Tim Stanley. are also known as 'Mars Analogue' Thir debut album is called 'Ephemera' and it features artwork by Kim James. On Friday 22nd August I was lucky enough to see Mars Analogue do one of their live shows and I was very impressed.

September 2025

Above: On my wau to Tallinn in Estonia. My first time abroad since 2009.

Above: 

Fred-Erik Kerner photographs me giving a speech at the opening of the Nature exhibition. Estonian artist Vano Allsalu will later say that it's one of the best exhibitions of 2025. Tine Frellesen wrote that "The Nature Show explores themes of nature, joy, grief and memory. The 10 artists’ voices blend together like music conveying a variety of experiences and emotions, each representing a personal view of the world and of life."

October 2025 

I went to the wedding of my friends Ripley and Jordan. It was a special day and a splendid time was had my all. Some months back I did their portrait which they used on the wedding invites. It was great to go to their wedding. There was a lot of love in the room.

November 2025  

Rowland Smith and I collaborate on a tribute to The Pogues. Our painting is called, 'Red Roses For Me' 

I first met Billy Childish in 1997 and I interviewed him for Frank magazine. I have interviewed him many times since then. My latest interview with Mr Childish appears in the new issue of Epifanio. You could read it: HERE

December 2025

On Wednesday 10th of December I went to Canterbury to see a very special performance by the fantastic Paul Speare. It was a great evening. I loved hearing him play Jazz on his saxaphone and Bach on his flute and also listening to him talk about recent events. 

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I was sad to hear the news that Martin Parr had died. Almost exactly 12 months previously he took a photo of me. Mr Parr seemed like a very decent fellow.

Roland Gift releases 'Everybody Knows It's Christmas' as both 7 inch and CD single. The video for the single by Team Beswick and Pye gets over 134,000 views in under 3 weeks. Roland is quoted in God is in the TV:  “My favourite bits in the video are Slade and Rupert Bear with a bomb. Team Beswick and Pye did a great job, the video is funny and happy and sad in a way that Christmas day can be.” I've always been a big fan of Roland so it was great to work with him.

Maria Balshaw (seen here admiring my painting of Vincent Van Gogh on his way to work) announces she will be stepping down as director of the Tate after next year's Tracey Emin show at Tate Modern which is expected to be a blockbuster.

So long 2025