Andy Holden, artist and curator, presents the first ever art exhibition by legendary alternative comedian Simon Munnery.
Open Fridays and Saturdays 10am -4pm
The exhibition will include paintings, props, jokes, videos and archive material spanning 35 years of stand-up comedy. It will include many of his well-known characters such as Alan Parker: Urban Warrior, with whom Munnery had a cult BBC Radio 1 show, and League Against Tedium, which formed the bases of his BBC 2 television series Attention Scum.
Munnery was described by The Scotsman as: ‘The closest that comedy gets to modern art’, and this exhibition will allow visitors to decide for themselves if his eclectic, profound, and humorous endeavors can be considered art, or not. Some of Munnery’s props from his 35 years of performing at the Edinburgh Festival have been transformed into sculptures, and his stick-men drawings that appear in many of his shows will be exhibited. Also on display, is the oil painting which was the center of his most recent Edinburgh stand-up show The Wreath. Munney has had brushes with the world of art before, having collaborated with Banksy on Exit Through the Gift Shop and appearing occasionally as spokesperson for the mysterious graffiti-artist. He also once sold a painting, featuring a joke about the Rolling Stones, to Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones.
The exhibition features Alan Parker: Urban Warrior, returning after 25 years to amuse the crowds at Extinction Rebellion. During Alan’s stirring routine, which includes showing the crowd some of his drawings, we see many of the crowd getting arrested. We also witness a funeral, staged by Munnery in his garden, in which he ‘catches the Wreath’. Death, pretentiousness and politics are all scrutinized for jokes, but in the humour something else seeps out, and perhaps that something could be ‘art’?
“the closest that comedy gets to modern art” - The Scotsman
“Comedy genius”- Stewart Lee
““Many are willing to suffer for their art, few are willing to learn to draw” – Simon Munnery
Guardian Thursday 16th July 2020
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