Scrawl Collective

Recent News

January 2010

The big news for the New Year is that we have dropped the prices on a huge number of our prints by up to 60%. A quick trawl through these pages will throw up more bargains than you can shake a stick at, (whatever that means).
We are now officially in our tenth year of existence as a Collective... the dates are a bit hazy but everything was a bit hazy back then and 2010 is as near as dammit... There will be celebrations and shows in the offing but that too is hazy until we decide what we're doing. As things unhaze we will be sure to fill you in on the emerging details... All we can say at the moment is that it will definitely be quite good.
Our show at No Borders in Hong Kong has been so successful that we've extended it by a few weeks to give all those culture starved expats more time to enjoy our wares...  Such has been the reception over there that plans are already afoot to return later this year, so keep watching this space.
Lastly the sharper among you will notice there is a new Yeti print on PhlAsh's page Yeti Over Mount Fuji (Shooting Star) and there is the long awaited new colour Yeti Over Mount Fuji to follow very soon. Also keep em peeled for new RYCA, Hutch and loads more over the coming months...
Until next time, Ric.

Summer / Autumn 2009

Well summer is over and it was a pretty hectic one. Art Car Boot Fair kicked things off nicely... We launched new prints actually at the fair for the first time and it proved very popular with a few of the smaller editions selling out fast. We also launched our own recycling scheme for unwanted vinyl... Earlier in the year RYCA customised or vandalised depending on your point of view a bunch of old house 12" records and called the project not unreasonably Acid House. This in turn inspired Jo Peel and David Walker to come up with their own approach to the age old problem of what to do with all those Kenny Ball and Val Doonican records cluttering up charity shops up and down the length and breadth of the country and the results were stunning. They proved so popular at the follow up Art Car Bootique Big Chill event that we are now preparing some vinyl editions for the website so watch this space peeps...
For those of you who prefer your art on more traditional surfaces there is plenty to look forward to. The return of PhlAsh is imminent along with a whole host of other Scrawl regulars like Hutch and Valerio. We also plan to extend the success of last years 'KIN gallery/store by continuing to collaborate with the non-scrawl artists we worked with on 'KIN, people like Dave Anderson who has been working with us all summer on his hilarious illustrations and selling them at our Art Car Boot stall but will soon be a fully fledged Scrawl artist with his own page and illustrations for sale. For anyone in the dark about Dave's work think David Shrigley but funny....
The last quarter of 2009 is looking pretty hectic but we're still managing to squeeze in a major exhibition in Hong Kong in December to round off the year in rousing and inspiring fashion. More on this as and when...
Lastly just a quick note about 2010. 2010 will mark 10 years of Scrawl Collective as an entity and 12 and 10 years respectively since the Scrawl books that kick started this whole thing were first published. I can't reveal any of our plans as yet but they are in an advanced stage and it's going to be bloody brilliant!
Until next time... Ric and all at Scrawl.

Shawn Mortensen – 1966 – 2009
I don’t usually use this site for personal messages or things not related to Scrawl but the untimely passing of Shawn Mortensen I feel provides an exception to the rule.  Shawn Mortensen was an incredibly gifted photographer and a complete one off. His passing leaves a very big Shawn shaped hole in the universe. From his iconic portrait photography to his work in the remote Chiapas region of Mexico Shawn brought the same humanity and humility to all his work.
I met Shawn about 5 years ago on one of his London jaunts, the idea being to work on an exhibition together.... Shawn's plans were ambitious to say the least ( I seem to remember a giant sculpture of Biggie and Tupac to be cast from melted down guns and erected in Hackney as part of a community project being mooted), to be honest at first I thought he was crazy but over the course of an evening in the pub I got to know one of the most genuine, infectiously enthusiastic, un-cynical, big hearted people I've ever come across. I probably spent no more than 12 hours in his company over the years since that first meeting but his effect on me was always in direct disproportion to the short amount of time I spent with him.
He will be greatly missed and the thoughts and condolences of myself and everyone here at Scrawl go to his friends and family.
Goodbye Shawn, I’m only sorry we never got that bloody sculpture built it would’ve been amazing… x

03/03/08

Welcome to Scrawl Collective, website and online gallery. Throughout the winter you may have been wondering what the hell those Scrawl dudes have been up to...... we"ve been busy, busy, busy... scheming schemes and dreaming dreams and making plans for Nigel. January saw us decamp to LA for the beginning of the new year for an exhibition at Scion Installation. We have some pics on the website if you want to see what we got up to...click on projects and look for Special Relationship in the list... ...The exhibition nearly didn"t happen thanks to Fed Ex, the art arrived with only hours to spare but 1000 people came through the doors on the opening night proving that our American cousins like hastily thrown together art shows as much as anyone else. Since February Ric has been working on a new Street Art book with his old writing partner from the Scrawl books Liz Farrelly so watch out for this dropping later in the year. It promises to be a mine of information if you want to know about Street Art (not so hot though if you want to find out about quantum physics and how it relates to alternate universe theory...) There are a couple of shows you should know about at the moment too... Scrawl veteran and all round good guy Will Barras currently has a solo show with our good friends at Stolen Space in London... if you get time check it out. It runs till 20th April. That's Stolen Space, The Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, E1. We have to say that even by Will's very high standards the fella has surpassed himself this time... Also relative Scrawl newcomer Joel Clifford has his opening this Thurs 17th April at Pure Evil, 108 Leonard St, London, EC2A. In The Untold Chronicles of Jack he will be exploring the myth surrounding Jack the Ripper. There will be all sorts of crazy installations and one off prints for your purchasing pleasure... Don't miss this must see show.

04/12/07
Opening on Thurs 6th Dec till 20th Dec, Open studio. 19 Kingsland Rd, London, E2. A huge group show of contemporary street art curated jointly by Nelly Duff (a fantastic little gallery on Columbia Rd), Pure Evil and Eine which will feature our very own PhlAsh. He will be exhibiting new paintings and also we will be launching our Acid Yeti hand finished prints. They will only be available from the exhibition so get yerself down there if you want one. Hurry though, there are only 28 prints available.
Also available now from the website, Another Soldier by Mark James, An art print about the futility of war. 10% of all proceeds from this print go to The Royal British Legion, an excellent charity that looks after the welfare of retired and newly civilian servicemen and women.

26/10/07
Welcome to Scrawl Collective's website and online gallery. Our autumn/ winter print releases are well underway now. We kicked off with the 2nd print from RYCA, R2TAG2 three weeks ago and followed that up with the much anticipated 2nd Yeti Over Mount Fuji edition in tangerine. Last week we introduced the talents of Will Ainley to the world, releasing two prints by him, Aladdin Pain and Ozzy Ozmonds and it would seem the rest of you are as keen on Will's twisted sense of humour as we are. There's much more to come in the next few weeks so keep watching this space. Next week sees the release of a brand new Hutch print called Housework and following that we srill have more to come from RYCA and more Yeti mayhem from PhlAsh to unleash.

29/08/07
Brand new print on Scrawl Collective courtesy of Brighton based stencil graffiti artist Hutch. Hutch has been prettifying the streets of Brighton with his distinctive stencils and paste-ups for a good few years now, mixing his decidedly rock n roll graf aesthetics with unexpected elements from popular cultures treasure trove. Scrawl are well chuffed to have Hutch on board as we kick things off for the back to school season with one of his most recognisable and popular images. She’s no better than she should be folks and she’s called Roller Girl….

20/07/07
Welcome to the Scrawl Collective website. We've been having a bit of a hiatus for the last month or so, making plans and dreaming dreams to ensure that the second half of the year is action packed and full of new stuff. We had a roaring success at the Art Car Boot Fair earlier this month, our stall got totally mobbed as we sold nearly everything we brought down. We also had a secret surprise guest in the form of graphics legend Swifty who brought along some really nice prints of greenshield and coop stamps that sold like hot cakes. Anyone under the age of about 30 will be in the dark about these early pre digital age pre-cursors to the nectar card but there was a time when if you collected about 5,000 of these stamps you could get a free set of hi-ball glasses. We also had Steff creating instant canvases and Ian Stevenson and Will Ainley doing instant doodles at a jaw dropping £5 each. What did we learn from the days experience? Swearing on art and disssing Damien Hirst sells..... We're gearing up for our new print releases right now so look out for new stuff from RYCA, PhlAsh, Will Ainley, Nick Purser and plenty of other surprises and guests along the way... Until then enjoy the site and buy some art you know you want to...... From everyone at Scrawl Towers, (well it's a garden shed but we have built a tower on top of it out of toilet roll tubes...).

01/03/07
Tons of stuff happening at Scrawl Towers over the coming months.... first off for a limited 6 week period only you can buy all our print editions from Nike Town on Oxford St. You will find them on the top floor at the Deal Real concession and just to give you a bit of incentive to get over there we've got some special deals on, exclusive to Nike Town. If you're in Birmingham this weekend (16th/17th/18th March) then come and find us at the Ltd Edition Art Fair at The Gate House, The Bond, 180 - 182 Fazeley St. We will be selling all our editions and again will be doing some special deals for the duration of the fair. In April denizens of the Republic of Mancunia can look forward to an editions exhibiton as our roadshow of prints starts up again.

In May we will be moving them to The Kitchen in Middlesborough which is run by two fine young chaps on a mission to bring lovely things to Middlesborough. As we're on the subject of the North East we may as well let slip that from early April you will be able to buy a selection of our prints from the fantastic Baltic Gallery in Gateshead... A bit of a coup and not a pigeon in sight...sayonara for now...Ric Scrawl.

01/11/06
If you're planning a trip to central London for a spot of Christmas shopping this year, don't forget to visits the menswear department at Liberty on Regent Street, where a selection of our limited edition silkscreen prints are now on sale.