Continuous Cities

  • Mark McClure

    Mark is an artist whose style has been informed by his work in design agencies for 15 years prior to beginning his art practice. His industry education led to him bringing his bold, geometric style to sculpture, furniture, light installations and murals as well as to galleries through print, painting and sculpture.
    His artworks take inspiration from the graphic landscape in our cities, with structural shapes, graphic motifs, chevrons and signage resulting in a visual language that straddles both abstract visual art and functional design.

  • Katy Binks

    Katy is a multi-disciplinary artist with a broad and colourful creative practice specialising in prints and site specific paintings. Her rich graphic style is informed by a questioning and experimental spirit, exploring the relationships between colour, shape, volume and proportion.
    Recently, she has been exploring a looser, more intuitive approach, harnessing the inherent playfulness of printmaking to create compositions that land in the space between intention and opportunity. Not concerned with precision, she celebrates the happy accidents that the screen printing process can generate to create works that are full of texture and intrigue.

  • Continuous Cities

    Mark and Katy collaborate to create one-off large scale experimental screen prints that reflect both Mark’s graphic approach and Katy’s playful intrigue.

    The name of their joint venture, Continuous Cities, is inspired by the novel Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino. It is a classic example of combinatory literature, containing conversations between Mongol emperor Kublai Khan and Marco Polo, in which they comment on culture, language, trade and human experience. Interestingly, the book can be read in any order, with multiple conclusions; a charming parallel to Mark and Katy’s creative approach.

  • What has been a stand out exhibition for inspiration?

    KB – Bridget Riley at the Hayward Gallery, 2020.

    MM - Anni Albers at the Tate, 2018. Partly for the work itself.. but more the epic range of her output. She was pretty incredible.

  • What's the project you're most proud of?

    KB - I had a solo show at ASC Gallery a few years back called ‘Saturated Space’, it was one of the first times I went into something without a plan.

    MM - Creation of a pop up bar for Campari - a great collaborative project and the end result was immersive, fun and served the best Negronis.

  • What's the one thing in the art industry that's not talked about, which you think should be?

    KB - The contribution the creative industries make to the economy, and in turn paying artists a fair wage for the work they do.

    MM - Access to arts training, which should be compulsory at school and equally available to all at higher education. Recent years have seen it become almost impossible without financial help in the early career stages.

  • What would your alternative career be?

    KB - I work part time as the studio manager for an architecture practice, so it would be in that field.

    MM - Something outdoors, involving a lot of travel to far flung places. Measuring icebergs, counting elephants… or something like that!

  • Your go-to tea/coffee mug is…

    KB - for tea it has to be china, for coffee, stoneware.

    MM - large.

  • The object that holds the most sentimental value to you is…

    KB – It would have to be the a Blaupunkt Arkansas 59 record player I inherited from my grandad.
    MM - Weirdly, a 1970s Aero Lineas ashtray.

  • The most beautiful object you possess is…

    KB – It’s more a selection of objects, but I’d say my art collection, which consists of pieces by Phil Ashcroft, Karl Bielik, Helen Ward, Richard Ayodeji Ikhide and Lucy Mclauchlan, whose screenprints were the first ones I ever bought.

    MM - A small stone carving from the floating villages on Lake Titticaca in Peru. Smooth, fits in the hand, and is oddly comforting.

  • Your most treasured second-hand or thrifted find is…

    KB - A large Portuguese serving plate, hand painted with bright colourful flowers.

    MM - A Danish mid-century sideboard.

  • The building that takes your breath away is…

    KB -  Something new: 15 Clerkenwell Close by Amin Taha. Something old: Little Moreton Hall.

    MM - Trellick Tower. A bit of a cliché nowadays.. but it's still incredible.

  • My favourite independent shop is…

    KB - Simply Fabric in Brixton. I’ve always been a bit of a magpie for textiles, especially prints, and it’s my go to place right now.

    MM - Honest Jon’s record shop in Portobello. I’ve not been for an age.. but it was pretty pivotal in my discovery of new music.

  • Money is no object. The artwork you would most like to own is…

    KB -  Something by Helen Frankenthaler

    MM - A Rauschenberg. 

  • The house is on fire. The one object you grab on the way out is..

    KB - My hard drive.
    MM - Ditto!

  • Every home must have..

    KB – A good quality frame for your new print - it’s worth the investment.

    MM - Loads of Continuous Cities artwork, of course.

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