ARTIST PROFILE:
Harvey Mann is a 22 year old artist from Salisbury who comes from an artistic family. He’s finally studying his true calling which is Fine Art, after being sidetracked by Sport and Fitness. His practice predominantly looks at photography and collage based media with some drawing thrown in to. He appropriates billboards through photographs and re-imagines their messages to reflect his own philosophies, doing this so as to reclaim the streets from corporate dominance.
He finds it hard to place himself in a single genre as his work changes so rapidly, however he touches upon subjects such as consumerism and advertising with the intention of subverting public space to involve a wider variety of messages not just those of advertising.
Three key influences in his work are Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer and the “Brandalism” initiative. “Brandalism” for its proactive approach to reclaiming public space from advertising. Kruger for her use of found images and Holzer for her use of public space.
Lastly, Mann wants to emphasize how his work is about being in the public, visual realm and domain therefore for his exhibition piece he will be wheat-pasting his collages to the outside of a container for the exhibition.
You can check out more of his work and find out more about the artist on his person website at: http://harveymannart.tumblr.com/
Don’t forget to see him in person 1st April - 5th April 12pm -6pm at Guildhall Square Southampton!