This week, Pick Me Up opened at London's Somerset House. The Contemporary Graphic Art Fair is an antidote to the fancier commercial shows such as Frieze and the Affordable Art Fair (well, it's all relative), offering the opportunity for punters to pick up prints from £10 and such retail-inspired ideas as late night Thursday openings.
More excitingly, though, is that it will be showcasing a huge range of graphic artists and illustrators and offering hands-on events for attendees. Well-reputed East London print studio A Two Pipe Problem will be relocating its 1930s proofing press to Somerset House, and People of Print will be organising workshops for visitors to create their own print or adorn a T-shirt with a selection of designs.
It's a great place to pick up a future investment piece from one of the graphic art world's rising stars - and if you want to know where to start, we've interviewed five of the best.
Mimi Leung
“I'm likely to be as affected by latest celeb gossip as by Baudrillard.”
Like it bright and bolshy? Leung's work is for you. Fun and silliness pervade along with big, bold colours - and while a bizarre sense of fantasy emerges through Leung's illustrations, her more fashion and scientific portrait-based illustrations are beautiful in their control and unique vision.
Have you always been drawing things?
My earliest memories are of drawing things, though this may be because that's what I'm interested in remembering... I remember I used to draw everything and anything whenever I had a chance. A job as an illustrator became an option as I developed my work.
Who or What has been your biggest influence?
I tend to be influenced by all sorts of things from the serious to the mundane. I'm likely to be as affected by latest celeb gossip as by Baudrillard.
Whose artwork do you admire?
My taste in art is continuously evolving. I like things now that I would have dismissed before. I think that's one of the great things about art - you can return to certain pieces throughout your life and get something different from it each time.
Recently I've been really into Max Beckmann, whose work I've always been a bit indifferent to, but looking at his paintings now I'm surprised and inspired by how full and rich they are.
What are your favourite things to draw?
I like drawing things that have an impulse behind them or are funny. I love drawing people, silly faces, bodies and muscles, abstractions, absurdities, flow, movement, exaggerations, gross stuff. They're among my faves. I suppose I like drawing things that have a bit of life in them or things that I can bring to life through my drawings.
What are you looking forward to seeing at Pick Me Up?
I'm in Australia and can't make it back for the show - and I'm really bummed about it! I don't know where I'd start if I was there - there's so much on and the set-up pictures look amazing. I would really love to see all the Zim & Zou stuff, that looks so crazy, and also to get a family crest by Jody Barton - I wonder what he'd come up with for my family.
David Sparshott
“I’m a big admirer of British pop artists”
Sparshott's knowingly-naive pencil drawings range from speedy sketchbook-style records of events and museums, to precise and witty studies of dogs, still lives and portraits. His work has been picked up by fashion tomes such as Another Man and Creative Review.
What made you want to become an illustrator?
I was always drawing as a child, the usual peculiar child obsessions such as swords, army men, and footballers. I think that it was whilst at sixth form college that I realised that you could actually have a job that involved being creative and producing art.
What has influenced your work the greatest?
I think a big influence on me has been art books, the one where they show an A-Z of artists. I used to love these books and would spend hours selecting my favourite paintings and trying to copy them. I've been a big admirer of British pop artists such as David Hockney and Peter Blake ever since.
Whose artwork do you admire?
Aside from Blake and Hockney, I am a big fan of painters such as Luc Tuymens and Ed Ruscha. Reportage photographers are also a big influence for me in showing the possibilities of storytelling and documentation through images, something that I’d love to explore further with my practice.
What are your favourite things to draw?
I really enjoy being able to draw from life without any constraints on style that can often arise when working on a commission.
What are you looking forward to seeing at Pick Me Up?
I'm really looking forward to seeing the Peepshow Collectives room.
Gemma Correll
"I draw myself so I don't have to worry about offending anyone"
You may not have heard the name, but there's a good chance you'll recognise Correll's playful illustrations of pugs, cats, and herself. Correll has appeared in the New York Times and the Guardian and could be seen to epitomise, in her own words, the trend that "pugs are so hot right now".
Have you always been drawing things?
Yes, I've been avidly drawing since I was a little girl. I used to spend all of my spare time making comics and 'books' in old notepads (so not much has changed). I loved reading my parents' The Far Side and Giles ( the cartoonist) annuals, even though I didn't understand most of the jokes, and trying to mimic the drawing style.
Who has been your biggest influence?
Apart from Giles, probably Simone Lia.
Your work has become really popular on greetings cards, how does it feel to have that kind of exposure?
It still feels quite strange to walk into Paperchase and see my drawings. I always wonder who on earth buys my cards because to me, they are just silly little doodles. I guess a lot of people like silly little doodles.
What are your favourite things to draw?
Pugs (I have two), cats (I don't have any but they are really fun to draw) and myself. That sounds incredibly narcissistic, but I enjoy it because it's easy and I don't have to worry about offending anyone, which I frequently do when drawing other people.
What are you looking forward to seeing at Pick Me Up?
There's so much. I've been a fan of the Peepshow collective for a long time so it will be great to see them. Then Modern Toss, who are hilarious, and Marion Deuchars, whose drawings I adore. I really like screenprints so I'm looking forward to seeing lots of those in the Print Club London and Soma gallery spaces.
Yuko Michishita
“The moment I see beauty within something it makes me want to draw”
Michishita's work harks back to an earlier time of detail and intricacy, but that doesn't make it any less covetable for a modern white wall. From her own brand of dark and precise copperplate to elaborate floral and graphic design, her's is the kind of drawing that will suck you in for hours.
What made you want to become an illustrator?
I drew a lot when I was little, it was my favourite activity. But I kind of stopped drawing when I got into the least favourite time of my life: teenage era. I guess drawing was considered nerdy and hence out and hanging out with mates became in. I wish we humans didn't have to go through the horribly self-conscious time of life!
Funnily enough when I started my BA in Illustration at the University of Brighton I wasn't drawing much. I was more of a mixed media person, but drawing caught up soon and I have been in love with pencils since then. I am an illustrator because I believe that's what I do best.
Who has been your biggest influence?
That changes from time to time. I'm always influenced by objects of beauty, which can vary from historical etching, photography, typography.. I think I rely heavily on my visual sense more than anything. At the moment I'm influenced by the mid-century typography and Ernst Haeckel.
What is it about a subject which makes you want to draw it?
I tend to be attracted to nature-related themes. But actually I don't know, I was really into drawing women of the Hmong and the Andes tribes weaving a couple of years ago, which I seem to have gone past, so I really don't know. The moment I see beauty within something and it makes me want to draw, then I draw it until I have enough of it.
What are your favourite things to draw?
I'm now into drawing microscopic entities and insects for some reason.
Will you be getting to Pick Me Up?
I was planning of being in London for the entire duration of the show, but I had to cancel the trip because I’ve moved to Australia and my passport was stolen! I was really excited to see Peepshow Residency of course, and I am a huge fan of Kristjana S Williams's work so I am so indescribably gutted for not attending.
Sarah Maycock
“I wanted to see my drawings being used for things”
sarahmaycock.co.uk
Maycock's mixed-media illustrations blend precision with expression - the Bear she is exhibiting at Pick Me Up has a perfectly-captured expression, while seeming to consist only of a few brushstrokes. Her depictions of BBC's Frozen Planet demonstrate her ability to capture the natural world with character, although her pencil portraits of humans shouldn't be overlooked either.
What made you want to become an illustrator?
I grew up around artists, and my Grandpa was a very skillful and prolific painter. He inspired me hugely to always draw and paint. My grandmother's paintings were also a great influence in the way I make images. I chose to study Illustration as opposed to fine art however, as I think I wanted to see my drawings being used for things. I was also interested in the collaborative nature of a brief, or design project, as well as the magical and democratic ability of printed press to distribute an image that might not otherwise have reached such a wide audience.
Receiving emails from people sitting on buses and trains, telling you that they loved the drawings of penguins you did in the newspaper, is a really great feeling!
How has your technique developed?
I think I've always been aiming at the same thing, but my drawing and editing skills have improved. I trust the natural quality of materials more and more, and hopefully this will allow me to make braver images.
Who has been your biggest influence?
As well as my family and peers, I think I've been most influenced by artists such as Gerhard Richter, Marlene Dumas and Henri Matisse. I also had a brilliant foundation tutor, Phil Tyler, who really made me think about how to make a painting.
What's the most exciting project you've ever worked on?
I was asked to collaborate with singer songwriter Imogen Heap last September to make the video for a song of hers, Neglected Space. It involved live, mostly abstracted painting onto glass and wood in an abandoned barn in her garden. I've been a fan of her music for many years so it was a joy to work with her, especially on something so experimental. It was also great to get the opportunity to illustrate David Attenborough's flagship interview for his Frozen Planet series in the Times Eureka Magazine, I loved those shows, he's such an inspiring man.
What are you looking forward to seeing at Pick Me Up?
I can't wait to see it all hung, it's my large scale group exhibition and it's just so exciting. Pick Me Up has a buzz about it and it's brilliant to be a part of it so soon after graduating. I am looking forward to seeing work by 'Ship of Fools', especially Jordy van den Nieuwendijk's Matisse-come-Keith Haring prints.
Pick Me Up runs at Somerset House until 1 April