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Marke Newton
Born in Burnley in the north of England in 1973, Marke Newton is an artist and graphic designer based in Paris. He graduated in Fine Art at Liverpool’s John Moores University in 1995. Since then, he has had solo and group shows in London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Holland, and participated in the BP Portrait Award exhibition in the National Portrait Galleries of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. His graphic design work has been commissioned by the fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Rossignol Skis, the skateboarding companies Heroin UK and Chapman USA, and the magazines Citizen K (France/Fashion), Relax (Japan/Lifestyle) and Anthem (USA/Pop Culture).
Inspired by the work of Stanley Spencer and Lucian Freud, he became the understudy of a classical portraitist and restorer/gilder at the age of 16. Simultaneously, he grew interested in the graphic designers and graffiti artists prevalent in the underground street culture scene through his passion for skateboarding. While the influences of the aesthetics of skate brand artwork and rock/pop band album covers are evident in his work, his portraits remain informed by his classical art training.
www.markenewton.com
The Sweet Barbarians
For his new series of paintings, the British artist has created a fictitious rock/pop band called ‘The Sweet Barbarians’. Each work is a portrait of one of Newton’s fictitious band members: friends or acquaintances are portrayed as famous icons gracing covers of album covers. The series references the role that rock music played in his formative years in Manchester - a breeding ground for The Wedding Present, The Smiths, New Order, The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays, and the dance scene supported by the Factory Records label exploded in the late 1980s. The paintings pay homage to album covers and concert posters reminiscent of 1980’s music graphics and 1960’s psychedelic imagery, the portraits themselves evocative of religious iconography hence attributing a fame and iconic status to those portrayed.
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