Mike Clay: The Big Beast and Other Stories

Mike Clay: The Big Beast and Other Stories
Newcastle Arts Centre Gallery
24th June- 22nd July 2023

Monday – Saturday 09:00 – 17:00

MEET THE ARTIST SAT 8TH JULY 2-4PM

Mike paints characterful observations and stories of humour and empathy from the community where he lives in Sunderland and satirical comments on the “chaotic and doctrinaire approach by our government” to asylum seekers, climate emergency and the cult of political personality.

These paintings represent a selection from the last three year’s work.

They are all acrylic and gouache on hardboard.

The paintings are made with rag and brush, and some paint is removed with stanley knife and sandpaper.

They broadly follow a number of themes:

Narratives and overheard conversations around Mike’s home in Sunderland. (‘Pirits Mony Here’- a piece of paper from a child’s game found in Cairo Street)

The process of growing old ( ‘Last Supper’- based on a 1980 photo in the ‘Looking Back’ section of the Sunderland Echo)

The mismanagement of the refugee ‘crisis’. (‘Welcome to Britain”- Suella Braverman, and her extreme response as Home Secretary)

A series of foliate heads based on the ‘ Green Man’ mythology (‘Mr. Vetch’ – combining human faces with common plants, human names often  refer to plants

Mike Clay: The Big Beast and Other Stories
Newcastle Arts Centre Gallery
24th June- 22nd July 2023
Monday – Saturday 09:00 – 17:00