Flights Of Fancy
Hypergallery Print Room - Henley-on-Thames - July 2022
47 Market Place, RG4 7NP
8th July 5pm > 9pm / 9th July 11am > 4pm
By appointment throughout July
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Hypergallery presents an selection of Marsh‘s most interesting album and singles covers published in large scale format as exquisite limited edition prints.
Touring exhibition celebrating Talk Talk‘s 40th anniversary.
James Marsh is a painter, illustrator, designer and author, best known for his striking album covers for new wave band Talk Talk. Marsh’s art has been the perfect match to Talk Talk’s music ever since his design for their debut album in 1982. It is a stunning catalogue of work, the product of a unique and very special relationship: the band have been devoted to their chosen artist throughout their career; the artist is a genuine, lifelong fan of the music.
"undoubtedly, the creative collaborations with Talk Talk remain my most enduring to date." James Marsh
The musical landscape of the 1980s was peppered with striking band or star portraiture. The New Romantic movement ruled the charts and since MTV had launched only the year before, how you looked was becoming as important as how you sounded.
Talk Talk, the English band headed up by Mark Hollis who died in 2019, released their debut album, The Party’s Over, in 1982. They announced their arrival with the following statement: “The music business is a fashion business”, before going on to declare Talk Talk as a band breaking through on music alone.
Marsh was asked to create the cover for their debut, removing the band members from the picture. From that first striking cover, his work became inextricably linked to the aesthetic of the band, and in fact to the visual story of the era of which they were part.
As you will see in the richly fantastical images of the natural world that Marsh created for Talk Talk’s subsequent releases, The Party’s Over marked the beginning of a decade long relationship so rewarding and long lasting that it is woven all the way through the fabric of Marsh’s life as an artist, a true flight of fancy.
Hypergallery is delighted to be able to bring this exhibition of signed, limited edition silkscreens and archival inkjets showcasing the jewels in Marsh’s impressive and distinctive portfolio home to Henley, following it's inaugural outing in collaboration with Haddenham Arts Centre in Ely, Cambridgeshire and Easter week at Show Off Gallery in Whitstable.
In addition to the prints below, we will be showing off Marsh's collection of small edition artist books, and the third edition of the hugely successful Spirit of Talk Talk by James Marsh, Chris Roberts and Toby Benjamin, published by Rocket 88.
"The first Talk Talk biography is a thing of beauty – that explores the group’s bewitching music and James Marsh’s striking cover art ...flush with new information." Mark Blake, Mojo magazine
