Mechanical Confection

Enter the abstract world of Joey Collins in which the artist subverts the screenprinting process to control, organise and create formal compositions in print.

Joey Collins’ studio looks out over the city and its time-lapse landscape, from dereliction and wasteland to high rise street scenes – he’s been watching over Oldfield Road, Salford from his corner of Hotbed Press print workshop for the past six years. His studio contains many found objects, colour studies, drawings and photographs collected from around the city, evidence that winds its way into the work.

After graduating from University of Salford in 1997 with a first-class honours degree in Visual Arts, Joey worked in the creative industries including graphic design, interior design, textiles, even making chocolate. From 2014 he has been developing a body of work exploring the medium of collage, drawing and printmaking.

“The process of screen printing allows me to control gestures made through drawing and then slowly organise my visual language into a more formal structure. Screen printing also allows me to build my images, in a way it is just like collage. These elements hop from work to work; landing in different places, sometimes changing colour and interacting with each other in different positions.”

He feels drawn to abstract painting, particularly the work of Joan Mitchel, Andre Butzer and Howard Hodgkin. He also points to Stanley Witney’s development of his own abstract visual language in response to colour as a significant influence on his practice.

This exhibition presents a significant new body of work titled ‘Stack’ and consists of individual mono-printed works printed onto Somerset Satin and Yupo watercolour paper, each piece is a unique print and is available to buy at the exhibition.