A painting by Michael Pybus, the London based artist whose work is collected by the legendary artist Takashi Murakami.

Michael Pybus creates Frankenstein hybrids which appear reassuringly familiar yet decidedly warped. Splicing images and genres into immersive mixed media environments, Michael reimagines contemporary culture by remixing icons, brands and franchises which permeate our lives.

The artist explores the ‘flattening’ of history, time and context onto a digital horizon which is devoid of hierarchies and accelerated by omnipresent virtual technologies.

Through analogue mediums such as painting and sculpture Michael reconfigures our visual environment, much like images that are augmented with smartphone filters. He alters images to be reborn as iconoclastic memes questioning how we interpret and project values onto cultural and consumer paraphernalia. In doing so he investigates, and at times pokes fun at, what we accept as the real, the authentic, the original.

Accolades

Michael Pybus lives and works in London. He has a BA in Fine Arts from Goldsmiths 2004 and an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art 2008. Recent solo exhibitions include: Soft Play Lungley, London (2018), I’m sure they have very different paintings on their own walls, Jelato Love, Palma (2018),  HIVE MIND, Jonathan Hopson, Houston (2017), Pretend the world is funny and forever, Amor, Mexico City (2017), HOLLOW, Thierry Goldberg Projects, NY (2017), PEAK HUMAN, Depart Foundation, Los Angeles (2017), CRUMPLE ZONE’, Tatjana Pieters, Ghent (2016), Karaoke, Carl Kostyal Stockholm (2016) and If it works, it’s obsolete, Johannes Vogt NYC (2015).

His work is included in the collections of Takashi Murakami,  Zabludowicz,  Philippos Tsangrides, Popov and can be found in private collections in the USA, UK, Brazil, Ireland, Sweden, Netherlands, Malta, Belgium, Greece, Germany, Spain, Taiwan, France, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, Australia & China.