Word Up: screen prints exhibition by Mr Gresty

Mr Gresty, If Anything Can Go Rong It Will

A new exhibition of local designer Mr Gresty’s typographically-inspired screen prints is on show at Biddle Bros in Lower Clapton. Word Up features an eclectic range of artworks which explore the visual and semantic aspects of the written word, and the curious relationship between the two.

Working on a children’s book called the A-Z of Twords led Gresty towards a deeper exploration of typography. Talking about one of his pieces, entitled A Change of Character, Gresty explains his interest in wordplay. “It is the simplicity of looking back at something and seeing that slight difference”, he says, referring to the print, which features the words ‘drink, drank, drunk’ vertically aligned in three, progressively wavy, different colours.

“When it comes to people getting pissed, they can change their character dramatically”, says Gresty. “This corresponds to the characters in the artwork, you refer to a single letter as a character.”

Everything in the exhibition is screen printed, a method Gresty has been using for a couple of years. The technique, popularised by Warhol, is essentially a photographic process, exposing an image one colour at a time through a mesh silk screen stretched over a wooden frame, creating bold and vibrant impressions.

Gresty cites his inspirations as Sister Corita (“her art, not her beliefs”), a Roman Catholic nun famous for her striking serigraphs, and Edward Rondthaler, a typographist. He describes the works of the former as the “among the most graphic, amazing prints I’ve ever seen”, adding, “it looks to me as if she could be doing these prints in Dalston over the last five or six years, rather than in the 1960s”.

Gresty’s previous prints, which include a collage of Hackney landmarks with the word ‘Hackneyed?’ emblazoned across it, have been snapped-up by locals and aficionados from further afield, and this fresh and dynamic new collection looks set to follow suit.

Word Up
Until 21 January 2012
Biddle Bros
88 Lower Clapton Road
E5 0QR