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Director's ForewordIt’s Hard To Be A Saint In This City

Painting False & Inflatable Feeling Make This Feel Like Home How Soon Is Now? (Weak Become Heroes) Doused In Mud, Soaked In Bleach Fated To Pretend The Sound of Loneliness Makes Her Happier The Sound Of My Heart Breaking In The Dark

Sculpture Creep Wuss Freak Bum Loser

Readymade Geeks Broken Stars Love Weirdo Answer Running Tonight

Paper Fate... Up Against Your Will Heart Soul Control Trying To Walk Like The Heros We Thought We Had To Be (Feat. Frances Bean Cobain) Loser Cool Kids Never Die Young Kings

Print All The Things I Should Have Done But Never Did... (Wordsearch one) This Time, We’ll Fade Out Tonight Fluorescent Adolescent

CVAcknowledgements

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The Cat Street Gallery is thrilled to present Stuart Semple’s second stunning solo show with the

gallery in Hong Kong. ‘It’s Hard To Be A Saint In This City’ is a new series of works on paper, large

scale paintings, foam sculptures and modified readymades.

Against the atmospheric backdrop of a creepy teen supernatural TV show, Semple weaves a story

of a loser’s prayer to be more than human, to control and dominate his environment. Whilst doing

so, he makes a clear judgement over humankind’s longing for fame and fortune or triumph over

mass-media culture. Rather like anti-anthems for teenage weirdos, these new works are firmly

dedicated to the loner kids, like Semple, who only had their dreams to get them through the day.

The works depict a multi-faceted, pick- and-choose, hybrid environment, which visually is totally

defined by mass culture and pop. This space is inhabited by all of us and defined by our choices,

desires and preferences. The work critiques the ‘us-and-them’ separateness that comes out of

this disparity.

Any visual result of that external cornucopia of ‘stuff’ can only be in the past - an advertising

campaign, music video or product is always pre-conceived. The only element that is truly of the

moment is nature itself, and humanity is the most present force of that in this particular context.

Therefore Semple’s new work addresses the felt emotion of separateness humankind faces whilst

living in a consumerist pop-culture society.

The works in this show are about isolation and alientation, but then they are also very accessible.

These amazing works are such because of the language. The language is derived straight from

popular culture, so they are symbolic in a way that many people can identify with them.

Throughout his multi-media works, including his fabricated sculptural pieces, Semple leaves

traces of error, of gesture and of the hand of the artist. By mixing high and low tech, his works

contradict the false hope that mass production and mechanization gave to previous generations

of pop artists.

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Semple’s work contains a large amount of ‘80s and ‘90s youth culture references, including song

titles and iconic figures. We are all surrounded by the language of popular culture; billboards, music

videos, fashion magazines. What Semple does is remix these icons and popular culture and discovers

that it is empowering to remix these ideas. People today strive for the perfection, when there are

simpler ways to find pleasure in life. Semple believes that society today and how people live has

meant that people become atomised and disparate, all trying to stake their claim on something. This

kind of existence is lonely so people want to grasp onto popular culture in order to feel connected.

‘’It’s the idea that people are going into the office reciting lines from sitcoms to each other in order

to feel some sort of connection. In the ‘80s, with the advent of music videos, popular culture became

an escape. These images and ideas were what helped people transcend the poverty surrounding

them and inevitably made them want to escape their surroundings.”

Semple’s paintings are far more than re-mixing; they address ideas which immersion in popular

culture sparks. Utilising captions from song titles and strong visual imagery, the viewer cannot help

but stare. The results are works that fuse contemporary figurative painting with pop art.

Although Semple’s paintings inspire comparisons with Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, he

is more informed by their legacies. Art is his obsession.

Stuart Semple is an incandescent talent and artist whose works are intriguing and riveting and they

leave an indelible imprint on the viewer, by eliciting memories of one’s own experiences. His work

creates an imaginative opportunity to reflect upon the themes of life, longing, loneliness and desire.

Mandy d’AboJanuary 2012

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By Tom Jeffreys ‘It’s hard to be a saint in this city’ is a new series of works on paper, large scale paintings,

foam sculptures and modified readymades by London-based artist Stuart Semple. The series

marks an expansion in Semple’s creative output, the diversity of media providing a natural link

between the paintings for which he is perhaps best known, and more technically elaborate

projects such as ‘Happy Clouds’. It also connects his artistic output with his more recent work

as a curator, by establishing its own fully realised conceptual environment.

The works operate within and against a visual world that is uniquely distinctive and yet instantly

recognisable. Bold, bright and clamouring with a multiplicity of messages, Semple’s vision

is one that chimes with the world in which we find ourselves – a complicated, occasionally

confusing world of constantly competing visuals. Outside - billboards, banner ads, glossy

magazines; here, logos, anagrams, visual puns, even a wordsearch - all compete for the

attention of these anguished, isolated figures, in particular the two hunched, seemingly

devastated females in ‘Doused in Mud, Soaked in Bleach’ and ‘False & Inflatable Feeling’.

But Semple does more than simply add another voice to the cacophony; he posits a tentative

series of pathways through. Art is one way; music another.

Music has long been a key influence on Semple’s work, and these new works are no different.

References to Radiohead, Beck, The Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen and Nirvana run through

the entire series. The title of the show, for example, references a track on Bruce Springsteen’s

1973 debut album ‘Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J’, but where Springsteen opts for the

characteristically vague ‘the city’, Semple creates, or seems to create, a sense of specificity

through the use of the demonstrative, ‘this’. By changing this single word, Semple emphasises

the intensely personal nature of his relationship with his art. Semple’s work has always been

informed by his own experiences. Right from the start, it was through creating art that he

was able to come through the anxiety disorder that followed a near-death experience in his

teens. Art and personal experience are, for Semple, inextricably linked, because his art is

about personal experience.

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Photo credit: Rai RoyalStylist: Justine Josephs

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And yet, this city is never actually revealed. Like the darkly relevant lyrics that are such a

pervasive influence, Semple draws on his own personal difficulties to produce something

that reaches out to the diverse array of losers, punks, emo kids and teenage New Romantic

oddballs that populate these images. Similarly, his new foam sculptures subtly poke fun at

the universalised playground bully, and their hurtful, but ultimately, juvenile insults – Bum,

Creep, Wuss, Freak.

In doing so, Semple maintains a delicate balance between communicating and keeping

back. There is always a secret, an aporia, that maintains a sense of mystery, and it is this that

transforms the personal experience into something of more universal significance. For all the

text, the logos, and the imagery, there is always an unknown (which is often on what level

these signs are operating) and it is this that keeps us coming back for more.

What we are left with then is nothing as simple as complicity or rebellion, but a tangled

relationship with the world’s own semiotic tangle. The question is really about where the

emotion, the personality, of the individual can find the space to express itself; even merely

to establish itself as a distinct, independent entity. The answer, in some ways, is that it is

impossible. We can never entirely untangle ourselves from the pre-packaged commercial

surroundings in which we exist. But as evidenced by the use of SMEG fridges (the kind of

boundary-straddling collaboration that has characterised the artist’s career), Semple is keen

to leave traces of ‘error’ throughout his works, thereby foregrounding the hand of the artist,

the lasting mark of the individual. Yes, there is a dialogue with big name pop artists such

as Koons and Warhol, but Semple complicates the false idealism that mass production and

mechanisation gave to a previous generations of pop artists.

Semple’s art is simultaneously an embrace and a struggle; a celebration and a condemnation.

“Come as you are,” it implores. “As a trend, as a friend, as an old memory.”

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© Enzo Barracco 2011 11

Plate 1: False & Inflatable FeelingAcrylic, charcoal, spraypaint & paint marker on canvas

120 x 120 cm2011

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Plate 2: Make This Feel Like HomeAcrylic, charcoal & diamond dust on canvas

120 x 120 x 7 cm2012

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Plate 3: How Soon Is Now? (Weak Become Heroes)Acrylic, charcoal & Kandahar ink on canvas120 x 120 x 7 cm2011

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Plate 4: Doused In Mud, Soaked In BleachAcrylic, charcoal & Kandahar ink & spraypaint on canvas120 x 120 x 7 cm2011

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Plate 5: Fated To Pretend Acrylic & charcoal on canvas240 x 170 x 7 cm2012

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Plate 6: The Sound of Loneliness Makes Her HappierAcrylic, charcoal & spraypaint on canvas120 x 120 x 7 cm2011

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Plate 7: The Sound Of My Heart Breaking In The Dark

Acrylic, charcoal & vinyl on canvas120 x 120 x 7 cm

2012

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Plate 8: CreepPepperskin coated polyurethane foam

Approx 150 x 150 x 90 cm2011

Edition of 3

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Plate 9: WussPepperskin coated polyurethane foam

Approx 120 x 120 x 90 cm2011

Edition of 3

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Plate 10: FreakPepperskin coated polyurethane foamApprox 90 x 170 x 120 cm 2011Edition of 3

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Plate 11: BumPepperskin coated polyurethane foam Approx 90 x 120 x 90 cm2011Edition of 3

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Plate 12: LoserPepperskin coated polyurethane foam

Approx 120 x 100 x 100 cm2011

Edition of 3

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Plate 13: GeeksAcrylic on refrigerator door

150 x 60 x 20 cm2011

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Plate 14: BrokenAcrylic on refrigerator door150 x 60 x 20 cm2011

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Plate 15: StarsAcrylic on refrigerator door

150 x 60 x 20 cm2011

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Plate 16: LoveAcrylic on refrigerator door150 x 60 x 20 cm2011

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Plate 17: WeirdoAcrylic on refrigerator door

150 x 60 x 20 cm2011

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Plate 18: AnswerAcrylic on refrigerator door150 x 60 x 20 cm2011

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Plate 19: RunningAcrylic on refrigerator door

150 x 60 x 20 cm2011

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Plate 20: TonightAcrylic on refrigerator door150 x 60 x 20 cm2011

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Plate 21: Fate... Up Against Your WillKandahar ink & watercolour on Saunders Waterford paper76 x 56 cm2011

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Plate 22: Heart Soul ControlWatercolour, acrylic, Kandahar ink & vinyl

on Saunders Waterford paper76 x 56 cm

2011

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Plate 23: Trying To Walk Like The Heros We Thought We Had To Be (Feat. Frances Bean Cobain)Kandahar ink, biro, watercolour & acrylic on Saunders Waterford paper76 x 56 cm2011

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Plate 24: Loser Watercolour, acrylic, vinyl, foil, Kandahar ink & vegetable dye transfer on Saunders Waterford paper76 x 56 cm2011

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Plate 25: Cool Kids Never DieCharcoal, watercolour, acrylic, Dr. Martin’s ink,

vegetable dye transfer, gold leaf, vinyl & spraypaint on Saunders Waterford paper

76 x 56 cm2011

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Plate 26: Young KingsWatercolour, acrylic, Dr. Martin’s ink, graphite

& biro on Saunders Waterford paper76 x 56 cm

2011

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Plate 27: All The Things I Should Have Done But Never Did... (Wordsearch one)

Wax crayon on Fabriano paper 100 x 85 cm

2011Edition of 25 + 3 AP + 2 HC

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Plate 28: This Time, We’ll Fade Out Tonight 5 Colour screenprint, hand finished with metallic paintmarker on 400gsm handmade watercolour paper 120 x 150 cm 2011 Edition of 6 + 2 AP + 2 HC

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Plate 29: Fluorescent Adolescent5 Colour screenprint on 400gsm handmade watercolour paper 120 x 150 cm 2011Edition of 12 + 2 AP + 1 HC

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Born in Bournemouth, England

School of Art and Design, Poole (Advanced Art and Design)

Bretton Hall, Yorkshire (Painting and Printmaking)

Currently lives and works in London and Dorset

‘The Happy House’, Morton Metropolis, London

‘Lipstick Vogue’, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong

‘Everlasting Nothing Less’, Anna Kustera, New York

‘Born To Run’, Terminal Crociere, Bari

‘Cult of Denim’, Selfridges, London

‘Pop Disciple’, AUS18 Gallery, Milan

‘Fake Plastic Love part I’, Truman Brewery, London

‘Fake Plastic Love part II’, Martin Summers Fine Art, London

‘Epiphany’, Martin Summers Fine Art, London

‘Post Pop Paradise’, SKIT, London

‘Stolen Language’, The Art of Nancyboy A&D Gallery, London

‘Nancyboy Paintings’, Pause, London

‘Nancyboy Paintings’, BLU, Bournemouth

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‘Polemically Small’, Charlie Smith, London

‘Mindful’, Old Vic Tunnels, London

‘Re:Define’, Goss-Michael Foundation, Dallas

Art HK11, Hong Kong

‘Polemically Small’, Torrance Art Museum, California

MOMAC, Gloustershire

‘Desire’, Portman Gallery, London

‘The Metal Ball’, Museum of Arts and Design, New York

Art HK10, Hong Kong

‘Kate Brandt Pink’, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

‘Nobody gets to see the Wizard. Not No One Not No How’, Anna Kustera, New York

Scope Art Fair, Miami

‘Gold Rush’, Roberta Moore Fine Art, London

Pavilion of Art & Design, London

Art HK09, Hong Kong

Ruby Green Foundation, Nashville

‘Signal 8’, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong

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CURaTORIaL PROJECTS

Art Kessaris, Mykonos, Greece

Next Art Fair, Chicago

Art HK08, Hong Kong

‘Romance’, Kowalsky Gallery, London

Bergamo Arte Fiera, Bergamo

‘Urbanity on Paper’, Anna Kustera Gallery, New York

‘Do You Nomi’, AUS18 Gallery, Milan

Art Miami, Miami

‘Multiples 1’, Architecture + Design Museum, Los Angeles

Art Car Boot Fair, London

‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’, Primo Alonso Gallery, London

Xiclet Gallery, Sao Paulo Biennial, Sao Paulo

‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’, Independents Biennial, Liverpool

‘Irresistible Paint’, A&D Gallery, London

‘Art of Love 2005’, Oxo Gallery, London

International ArtExpo, Mexico

‘Pop Culture’, Beatrice Royal, Hampshire

‘Mindful’, Old Vic Tunnels, London

‘This Is England’, Galleria Uno+Uno, Milan

‘Uber Collision: Epic Fail’, Idea Generation Gallery, London (curated by Stuart Semple &

Harry Malt)

‘Bazooka- Kiki & Loulou Picasso’ Aubin Gallery, London

‘This Is England’, Aubin Gallery, London

‘London Loves the way things fall apart’, Galleria Aus18, Milan (curated by Stuart

Semple & Cecilia Antolini)

‘Mash-Ups - post pop fragments and detournements’ Kowalsky Gallery, London

2007 ‘The Black Market’ Anna Kustera Gallery, NYC (curated by Stuart Semple & Ju$t

Another Rich Kid)

‘Non Compos Mentis’, Adlib Gallery, Wakefield

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SPECIaL PROJECTS Moncler Austria, Tokyo, New York

Semple x Pizza Express x International Finance Centre, Hong Kong

ʻFORMʻ Ambassadors of Design, Hong Kong

‘Happy Cloud’ performance, Piazza della Scala, Milan

‘Happy Cloud’ performance, Tate Modern Bankside, London

‘TOY’, Stuart Semple + Moncler, Art Basel Miami, Aspen, St. Moritz, Milan

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COLLaBORaTIONS

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COLLaBORaTIONS

SELECTEd BIBLIOGRaPHy

Aubin & Wills / Amnesty International

The Futureheads / West East Magazine / Lady Gaga

Moncler / The Prodigy / Muse / Umbro

Levis, Diesel, 7 for all Mankind & Evisu / Subliminal Girls / Selfridges

NoiWear / Stimuli Magazine (with Ju$t Another Rich Kid)

Ju$t Another Rich Kid

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‘Future Girl’, Roxane Mesquida x Stuart Semple, Filler

Lady Gaga x Stuart Semple : Pop Hybrid’, WestEast Magazine

‘Semple collection inspired by mental Britain’, BBC News, Jane Witherspoon

‘I’m Afraid To Swallow’, The Evening Standard, Liz Hoggard

‘Stuart Semple, Morton Metropolis’, The Arts Desk, Josh Spero

‘Popular Culture and the Aesthetic Discourse’, Aesthetica, Cherie Federico

‘Commenti al moto contemporaneo’, Italian Vogue, Leonardo Clausi

‘Semple Pleasures’, Live City & Islington, Mark Kebble

‘Stuart Semple. The New Order’, Yasmin Bryce

‘Pop Matters’ Filler, Jennifer Lee

‘The New Face of Brit Art’, Kee Magazine, Rachel Duffell

‘Semple Pleasures’, Esquire

‘London Calling’, Prim, Kristin Ferrandino

‘An Exhibition on the Implosion of Popular Culture’, Aesthetica, Cherie Federico

‘Painting Through A Complex Lens’, L’UOMO Vogue, Alan Prada

‘Storm Clouds Give Way to Smileys over London’, The Times, Kaya Burges

‘Oltre Il Pop’, Urban, Giovanni Cervi

‘Playing With Art and its Symbols’, L’UOMO Vogue, Alan Prada

‘Stuart Semple: Keeping the Brit Art Flag Flying’, Palladium, Catherine Wheatley

‘Duck Toy’ La Repubblica, Alessandro Retico

‘20 Best up-and-coming Artists’, Independent, Alice Jones

‘Does my art look big in this?’, The Independent on Sunday, Rachel Shields

‘Stuart Semple and the Limitless Language of Art’, Zoot, Andrea Probosch

‘Stuart Semple’ Blag, Sarah J. Edwards

‘Pop Art & Mass Culture’, Aesthetica, Niamh Coghlanr

‘Stuart Semple’, Exhibart, Marta Silvi

‘Giovane Inglese, Pittore New Wave’, Arte, Cristina Campanini

‘Golden Pop’, Elle Italia, Pia Capelli

‘Paint It Bleak’, ARTnews, Eric Bryant

‘Stuart Semple’, Zoot, Matt Hussey

‘Stuart Semple; 80s influences & popular youth culture’, Aesthetica, Shona ‘Fairweather’

‘Neopop’, Arte, Pia Capelli

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CaTaLOGUES

PUBLICaTIONS

OTHER

‘Io Che Mixo Gli Ottanta’, D Magazine, Le Repubblica, Leonora Sartori

‘Fake Plastic Love’, Financial Times, Peter Aspden

‘Stuart Semple’, Art of England, Pam Bates

‘The Black Market’, Saatchi Online, Doug McClemont

‘East End Boy’, Attitude, Caroline Smith

‘Generation Now’, WGSN.com, Milly Glaister

‘Semple Things’, Angel Magazine, Mark Kebble

‘Let The Show Begin’, Tatler, Clare Milford Haven

‘Bright Young Thing’, Harpers Bazaar, Francesca Martin

‘Burn Paradiso Burn’, Pig, Giovanni Cervi

‘New Art Rises’, Sunday Telegraph, Charlotte Edwardes

‘RIP YBA’, The Art Newspaper, Louisa Buck

‘Mindful’, Old Vic Tunnels

‘Re:Define’, Goss-Michael Foundation

‘The Happy House’, Morton Metropolis

‘Born To Run’, Bari Terminal Crociere

‘Pop Disciple’, Aus18 Gallery, VanillaEdizioni

‘Bergamo Arte Fiera’, VanillaEdizioni

‘Fake Plastic Love’, Martin Summers Fine Art

‘Epiphany’, Martin Summers Fine Art

‘Psychonauts, Sailors Of The Psyche’, Beautiful/Decay Book, USA

The Joyce Handbook, First Edition, Hong Kong

‘Creative Space: Urban Homes of Artists and Innovators’, Francesca Gavin, Lawrence

King Publishing, UK

‘Playground 1’, Zach Gold & Julie Ragolia, New York

‘300% Cotton’, Lawrence King Publishing, UK

Presenter, BBC Art & Design

Curator, The Aubin Gallery

Presenter, JackTV

CoolBrands, Expert Council Member

Columnist for Art of England magazine

Member of DACS creators council (Design and Artists Copyright Society)

Editor and art director of Still Magazine (online journal for contemporary arts & culture)

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Book Acknowledgements Catalogue Design

The Antithesis 1 Pak Tze Lane, Central www.theantithesis.net

Exhibition AcknowledgementsThis book was published to accompany an exhibition of the same name

‘It’s Hard To Be A Saint In This City’ Friday, 17th February - Saturday, 17th March, 2012

222 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong T +852 2291 0006 www.thecatstreetgallery.com

I’d like to thankEmily Mann, John Jones, SMEG, Jess at Artists First Management, Sarah Leon at Next, Clare Bryant and everyone at The Cat Street Gallery for all their support.

I’d like to dedicate the show to my son Ari.