Viewing room

One Man's Trash

Dave Buonaguidi

Jealous East

08 Jun 2017 — 02 Jul 2017

‘One Man’s Trash’ is the result of Dave Buonaguidi’s inherent desire to create, with the challenge of printing onto almost anything. Sourcing the most unusual materials, including school biology posters, Beano comics, flags and lighters, he emblazons them with his stylised and instantly recognisable font, re-appropriating images and objects from mainstream and using his bold phrases to frame them in a new context.

A pop-culture quote, a witty phrase or a heartwarming message (see: I Fucking Love This Place), Buonaguidi feeds his need to create by screenprinting onto the most difficult surfaces, recreating the objects into something else entirely and producing prints unprecedented in their scale and ambition. The work manifests as a monument of our times or times past, making us look at the objects again, reassessing their worth and reevaluating their usefulness. A mindful nod to lighter times, the playful naiveness of the Beano comics, the ladybird pages, the harmless smut, the historic and reminiscent brought into the modern world.

The works in the exhibition will be a myriad of Buonaguidi’s collections and will be displayed as a house of curio, a delve into the past, updated with bold neon pink text overlays and a dash of wit.

DAVE BUONAGUIDI

UK BASED ARTIST

Dave Buonaguidi worked in advertising for over 30 years, founding St. Luke’s, the worlds first advertising co-operative and labelled as ‘the most frightening company on earth’ by the Harvard Business Review. He has since worked as creative director at Channel4, founded the advertising agency Karmarama and Chief Creative Officer of the London Office of Crispin Porter and Bogusky. In 2003 he created the iconic ‘make tea not war’ poster for the anti-war march, which now forms part of the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection and also hangs in the Trento Museum of Modern Art.

During a year-long hiatus from the advertising world, Buonaguidi set upon learning a new skill and undertook a screenprinting course, which in turn gave him the freedom to finally find an out-put for the many ideas that had been swimming around in his head. After huge amount of success with his newfound passion in print, Dave has now become a full-time artist. He works on found images and materials, experimenting with the practice of screenprinting to push the boundaries of what it is and can be. Past examples include printing with pheromones, sprinkles, printing onto copper plates and just about anything else he can find, showing the investigative approach he takes to his printing practice.