Friday night Inner State Gallery played host to only the second solo gallery show in the United States by the English artistic duo Prefab77. Peter Manning & Marc Ross set up their work space in the Inner State Gallery studio and for 2 weeks worked almost nonstop and this incredible body of work.
"This whole series started a little bit different, but it’s still got the same elements that we’ve always done. We always tell a story, whether it’s political, fashion, music or history. What we’ve switched to with these totems, it’s a case of figuring out a concept and a medium that is scalea-ble. The whole thing for us now is telling it in a small scale or a big scale. You either do it small, as these little totems, or tall on a building, which is what the next step for us will be. The story could be anything. It could be the history of a city, a struggle, a person or a movement. With this medium we can have the ability to do that. We want to tell compelling stories that could be a sad, poignant or serious story but could encapsulated in these figures.
People love to tell stories and love to hear stories. I think that’s what everyone does whether it's movies, advertising, songs or poetry. When you write a song you’re telling a story. It’s a human condition. If you took everything away, you would be around the campfire telling stories. Medieval art tells the story of religion. Renaissance art has hidden allegories. Russian art tells a political story and punk posters tell the story from the dispossessed. We’ve pulled all these references together to create all these figures." - Prefab77
Head over to 1xRUN.com for all the pieces from the Prefab77 show on sale right now. There are prints, hand embellished prints and hand made pieces on laser cut wood.
