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The musician, author and artist brings his psychedelic exhibition of acrylic and oil visions of ‘70s and ‘80s wrestlers to Middlesbrough
Image: Liver Sausage (Mark Rollerball Rocco) by Luke Haines
As frontman of revered ‘90s outfit The Auteurs, a widely acclaimed solo artist and collaborator as well as a best-selling author, Luke Haines has spent the past three decades accumulating a body of work to rank among the UK’s chief cult creatives. Those maverick talents enter another new medium this month, as a decade-long pastime culminates in his debut art exhibition, Uncanny Island.
Running at Middlesbrough’s Eston Arts Centre from Friday 9th-Saturday 31st July, Uncanny Island presents a collision of passions via a series of psychedelic acrylic and oil visions of ‘70s and ‘80s wrestlers. It’s a hobby Haines dates back to the recording of his 2011 concept album Nine And A Half Psychedelic Visions of British Wrestling From the Late 1970s to the Early ’80s, and these specially painted canvases represent his most fully realised World of Sport-era likenesses to date.
Perhaps the pièce de résistance, however, comes in the form of a fully embellished Fall Christmas tree – a creation which began life as a series of custom-painted baubles gifted to friends bearing the faces of the legendary Mancunians’ members. Now expanded to feature every performer from the band’s chaotic 42-year history, the tree houses a total of 66 portraits, pitting familiar faces alongside those long-forgotten. As yet, there’s no word on whether Mark E Smith is cast as the tree-topping angel…
