Private View Review – Colin Self @ The Mayor Gallery – London

Let’s be honest; there aren’t many artists who can make you laugh. Seriously. Think about it. Humor is a personal preference. It exists within a set of arcane demographics. Where it seems simple, it’s often complex – and vice versa. For artists, the chance of holding a multi-dimentional gag together are fairly slim. Not that it’s been too much of a problem for Colin Self. Believe me, he’s a talent to make you chuckle, smirk and ponder every time.

One of the original pioneers of Pop Art, Self studied at The Slade School of Fine Art, where he was advised that he’d “probably fail”. Hmmm. Well. So much for the tutorial encouragement, nurture and grow effect. Of course, it goes without saying, Self did quite the opposite. In fact, it’s rumoured that at his very first solo show at the Godfrey Pilkington Gallery in London in 1965, guests included such luminaries as Lucien Freud and David Hockney. By 1967 he’d featured at the Biennale de Paris and, since, has appeared at MOMA, the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris, the Tate and Hayward. Probably fail, eh? I ask you…

Last night saw Self’s aptly dubbed ‘Collage’ exhibition open at The Mayor Gallery on Cork Street. Almost every space of the gallery walls had been covered for this show. Indeed, Self is clearly a productive artist. It seems that everything he comes across, that’s vaguely cut-able, glue-able and stick-able, is ripped up and placed into some smart, sassy, sharp collage piece. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as media goes, cardboard is a big favourite. Self turns it into roast chicken ('A Chicken Drumstick On a Plate’, 2003), freshly mowed fields (above, ‘The Ploughman; Dig My Earth’, 2004) or an old fashioned arched beehive (’Bee Eaters and Bees’, 2004). As to the aforementioned humour, it’s apparent within the works that take on a seemingly average, sometimes ridiculous situation. A dole cheque for one pence, is decorated by World War Two’s favourite graffiti face Mr. Chad, aka Kilroy, with iconic words ‘Wot no gravy?’ flowing from his unseen mouth; the Queen, having been fixed onto an envelope in the form of several stamps, rows a gondola through Venice (wearing a striped t-shirt, no less); and five windswept black dogs leg-it from wherever with a strand of sausages clamped between the leader's chops. And its all good fun. In fact, like everything else that Self produces, it works - wonderfully.

Colin Self’s ‘Collage’ takes place at The Mayor Gallery, 22a Cork Street, London W1, from the 22nd March – 28th April.