We recently ran an open call that explored the inspiration of the written word. But, for this open call the letters themselves are the art form. This TYPOGRAPHY theme has been explored by artists using print, slogans, graphic designs, posters, graffiti, sculpture, photography that uses letters as the focus.
Artist name: Paul talbot
www.paultalbotart.com
Description: Part of the 'mad as a box of frogs' series. as a teacher (nearing that good old retirement age) I am aware of the language I use within a classroom - however in my head there's a lot of bad language. Through my art, I am able to channel those thoughts and add a little humour into them. I consider myself to be an emerging (although a little late to the scene!) contemporary artist creating edgy, quirky, humorous images using mixed media approaches that convey thoughts we all have, places we have been and comments we have made: art to start a conversation that speak a million words.
Artist: Bianca Turner
Instagram: @biancaturnerart
https://www.biancaturner.art/
Description
This painting was inspired by the poem written by my friend, Elison Alcovendaz "They say a picture is with a thousand words which explains why I want to scream F U 500 times whenever I see your profile pic".
Artist: Rebecca Efstathiou
https://rebeccaefstathiou.wixsite.com/website/blank-3
Description: The intricate, often enigmatic, path an artist treads before giving birth to an artwork. The word "process" serves as a gateway to this realm, a portal that, when ventured upon, reveals a labyrinthine journey. It is the ethereal bridge that connects imagination to reality. It's the alchemical fusion of inspiration and determination. The process is where uncertainty dances with clarity, where chaos and order embrace, birthing creations that transcend the confines of language. Through each stroke and syllable, I explore the layers that underlie every expression, revealing that an art work, lies not just in the finished work, but is the transformative journey that brings it to life.
Artist: Darren Lee Clarke
@darrenleeclarke
https://www.darrenleeclarke.com/
Description: 'Ain't Nobody' is an intervention with a multimedia work by Lim Kok Yoong (Malaysia) entitled 'WHEN YOU ARE NOT YOUR BODY ...' with an underlying notion that living is more of cognition than corporeality. My intention is to visually debate this concept by the addition of human physicality in this otherwise stark environment.
Artist: Goran Tomic
linktr.ee/undererasure1
Description: My Collages are a manifestation of the chaotic mayhem of modern life in a big City. The latest series of Collages were constructed when my immediate living environment changed from a wonderful old house with a large workshop to apartment block existence. With hardly any space or storage I had to downsize my work on smaller sized cardboard, manilla envelopes and various second hand childrens and nature book covers. The Idea was that they could fit into a folder in a carry bag/satchel and be worked on wherever I was. The Collages were started and conceived while in transit, either in cafes, pubs, libraries and even on public transport. The initial energy being my surroundings and then the finishing touches fine tuned at home.
Artist: Natalia Millman
www.nataliamillmanart.com
Abandoned mattresses. I write messages on the fly tipped mattresses as a temporary installation before they are removed. I am drawn to this object because it holds a symbolic interest: it is intimately connected with rest, dreams, and the subconscious. It is a place where people spend a significant portion of their lives, experiencing vulnerability, comfort, and often deep emotions. The mattress can represent a sanctuary, a private space where one is free from the demands of the outside world. When abandoned, it symbolizes neglect, loss, and the passage of time, evoking a poignant contrast between its past purpose and its current state. This duality adds metaphorical meaning to this object, reflecting broader themes of care, abandonment, and the human condition.
Artist: Indianna Solnick
indi.solnickfarrell.co.uk
Description: Indianna’s practice is concerned with a storytelling of land and lived spaces, tracking patterns in the infrastructure of our environments. These stories are told partly through material choices and partly through form and diagram. In painting installations, signs and signals collide with punctuation motifs to activate a language of landscape. Painting surfaces constructed from composites of paper expand from the wall, wrapping and spiralling to form interior voids. Contemplating through an unfolding of the painting surface into passageways and fences, the forms echo her walks and explorations, gently questioning the structure of the urban landscape.
Artist: Stevie Chow
https://www.mrsteviechow.com/
“All Or Nothing At All” (2024)
Diptych - 122 cm x 150 cm
Oil & Acrylic on Styrofoam & Drop Cloth
Diptych of distorted, journal inspired charcoal markings that aim to capture the chaotic process through thought. The layers are overlaid with bold, declarative text: “i wish you could see how beautiful you are” / “Plz leave.” Love and fear both exist within moments of intimacy. I found the oppositional statements to be a playful way to create a sense of emotional boundaries, leaving the way the two engage to be up to the viewer.. This piece originated from finding a discarded large styrofoam panel, which I explored as the start point of creating an amplified journal entry that developed through the continued call & response of writing my thoughts sequentially as they came.
Artist: Jill Laudet
https://laudet.weebly.com/
Description: Listen to Trees 2022 an outdoor installation of 60+ hand embossed texts on copper tree bands giving trees a voice.
Artist: George Kowzan
Website: Google George Kowzan images for examples of large scale mural work in Málaga. eg "I have a dream" "Portrait of the artist: George Kowzan" Youtube.
Description: This was the first large scale word art mural called "te comprendo" at the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas. It has five faces representing the cultural backgrounds of students learning languages at the school. The faces were made using translations of the phrase "I understand you" in the eleven different languages taught at the school.
Artist: George Willmore
“Dadaist Poem No.1” (2024)
My first venture into the world of DADA poetry, a form of poetry which channels the absurd with a dash of random chance. The individual words and phrases was cut from an assortment of old magazines and then assembled to form a sentence that has likely never been created before. This is just one of the dozens of poems I created as part of my artist trading card series, named both for them being glued to playing cards as canvases, and for the idea that they are to be trading with fellow creatives.
Artist: Stefan Szczelkun
https://stefan-szczelkun.blogspot.com/p/books.html
Description: 'ART Must Get OUT' Is a long term slogan of mine that came from my frustration at how Art was kept out of the public realm. In particular how it was kept out of working class areas.
Artist: Fred Fabre
Website: https://www.thewronggallery.com
Description: Rouge’ painting depicting a #freeperiods demonstration in support of the full eradication of the #tampontax and the free access to sanitary products in schools and college. The mouvement was started by teenager #amikageorge from her bedroom (I inserted her in the far right corner ). The #painting is an idiosyncratic interpretation of the feelings of #outrage when reading about Period Poverty. 30% of the sale of this original oil painting or of a print (if anyone dare buying it😎) will go to #actionaiduk @actionaiduk
Artist: Finn Dobson
Description: Inspired by the history of textile arts in social justice movements and my love of language, my work often features text that highlights issues related to marginalisation, disability, queerness, and identity. Embroidering text not only allows me to play with typography, but to sit with words and phrases longer, exploring the depths of their meaning, recrafting the stories we tell about ourselves. This was taken from my 'Thorn in the Flesh' series, which explores the experiences of navigating mental health systems, and the stigma that Personality Disorder labels hold.
‘All the Things You Said’ - Hand embroidery on medication leaflet
These words and phrases are just some of the things that people have said (or written in my medical notes) about me and others with the label of Borderline Personality Disorder. Research into health professionals' opinions and treatment of those with the label shows that it holds much stigma, and informs the (mis)treatment and exclusion of people from mental health care. The barrage of different fonts and sizes emulates the way these words were experienced externally, and then internally reinforced in my own and others' voices. By externalising these words which I allowed for many years to haunt me, I took the power from them and gave it back to myself, making space for new ones to define myself by.
Artist: Werner Ungerer
www.wernerungerer.yolasite.com
Description: Title: Park Island Prayer
Medium: paper, pen, acrylic ink, gouache, watercolour, pencil
Size: 70 x 100cm
This work deals with a collision with the reality of leaving my job of 10 years in order to pursue art full time. I moved out
of the city to a more rural space and felt utterly overwhelmed by the enormous change and risk.
Near my apartment was a very small island in a conservation area which I walked every day as a form of meditation. Borrowing from the tradition of landscape painting en plein air, I carried a notebook with me and recorded any and all observations that came to mind: isolation, fear, a profound concern over the pollution of this tiny island.
During times of stress it is to Nature that we look for calm and restoration. But what if Nature, damaged by human endeavour is unable to provide the comfort we seek, the beauty that restores us? Where do we go?
Reminded of Medieval monks I copied my observations in the Gothic style of calligraphy, perhaps yearning for the simplicity of a monastic life: meditation, learning, labour.
The work has, at its centre, a difficult question around technology, mental health, the decline of the environment on which we rely for so much and the futility of nostalgia.
Artist: Sally Spinks
Website: www.sallyspinks.co.uk
Description: Title: Estate, estate. Hand tufted wool, carpet tiles, wire. 1.75m x 2.00m. It's one word but 'estate' has two very different interpretations - the country estate and the council estate. Why is one considered good and the other bad?
Artist: Nia Addicott
Description: The ‘misogyny prevention manifesto’ include shared experiences of misogyny from local women from a questionnaire. The ‘Misogyny Prevention Manifesto’ takes inspiration from classical artist’s manifestos and lists clear declarations and demands with a hint of humour but also very seriously declaring the need for change.
Overall the aim of this installation is to provoke, to question and disrupt the somewhat accepted nature of misogyny. Although big changes have been made in recent years the fundamentals of society remain engrained and require absolute destruction.
Artist: Simon Yates
Website: www.blackdogart.uk
Description: The piece is cast concrete using modern concrete formwork construction. The word forces itself forward from its 2 dimensional planarity, daring you to confront its meaning. It has biblical and historical references, relating back to when orders were written in stone. Only this is cast in concrete bringing it back to modern day. The word “WHAT” has no question mark so it doesn’t pose a question other than the question of what is this word meaning in this context. So the piece becomes meaningless, yet it has been given gravitas by setting it in concrete. Its questioning without a question.