Moving Images / Forever Still

The Coningsby Gallery is pleased to announce the premiere of Moving Images/Forever Still an exhibition of mixed media works by Adrian Morrish that are drawn from the artist’s teen friendship with Rock legend, Freddie Mercury.

The theme/title of this exhibition is derived from the ambiguity of the word moving, (as in emotional), and the filmic term moving image. The term forever still relates to the exhibition’s images of the teenage friendship between Freddie Mercury and the artist Adrian Morrish … forever caught in the moment.

Adrian and Freddie were friends from 1964 to around 1968, firstly, as students at Isleworth Polytechnic, Middlesex, an impressionable period in their lives, and later as occasional ‘ravers’ at London’s Blues clubs (most notably Eel Pie Island). On 29th July 1965, Adrian and friends used an 8mm cine camera to film themselves out and about on the Polytechnic’s campus, and in the streets of Isleworth. As a result, the images give an intimate impression of the star at the age of 18, just a few months after he arrived in this country from Zanzibar, after being forced out by a bloody military coup. Freddie and Adrian went their separate ways in their twenties with no further contact. But in 2012 Morrish re-discovered the 1965 film (which he had not previously seen), and this had a great impact on his work on the theme of life’s journey, and lost youth … forever caught in the moment.

The works on display are ‘printed paintings’ on stretched canvas, that can be pieced together (using a patented jointing method) to form a much larger and multi-faceted image to fill a space with artwork that reflects the themes in this exhibition.

Artists like Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg are prime examples of printed painting. Though the two artists both famously used printing techniques to replicate images, they are printed onto canvas instead of paper and considered these works paintings, not prints.

Adrian Morrish is an artist who divides his time between London, and the Cotswolds (where he has his studio), and who has had a successful career in advertising and graphic design before moving into contemporary art, briefly as a gallery owner, and then a self-taught artist.