One of the most universally recognisable symbols of our time, loved by everyone from ravers to Fatboy Slim to a whole world of texters, and everyone in-between, the sunny yellow smiley face burst onto the scene in the early 60s designed as a motivational tool in an insurance company, of all places. Fast forward to the 90s, a time of great cultural change, which in turn generated a wave of new trends and symbols. Did the smiley face make the cut into its 4th decade? And just how popular were smiley faces in the 90s? Let's take a look. THE ORIGINS OF THE SMILEY FACE Having been around since 1963, the smiley was created by graphic artist Harvey Ball. He...
POP Gallery presents - Ravers of The Lost Art - Join us at the Private Viewing of the latest exhibition on 7th October for Amazing art, Beer. Fizz and our guest DJ spinning some cool tunes
Since the dawn of human civilisation, forms of graffiti have always taken place. Right from carvings in caves, to Ancient Greek and Romans rebelling and protesting poetry across street walls. Deriving from the Greek word ‘Graafian’ the art form has taken the world by storm and played a crucial role in modern art. During the 60s the rise of the art form started to take off as ‘tags’ became more common in subways and other popular areas of New York. Throughout the early phases of modern graffiti, graffiti artists or ‘taggers’ as they were known as, were typically part of gangs and used tagging as a way to mark out their territory from other rival members. However, during the...
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota of 1958, the worldwide singer-songwriter Prince had taken the musical culture by storm with his massive talents in integrating all different genres of music. From funk to pop, he could play multiple instruments including the electric guitar, drums, clarinet and even the acoustic piano. At just the age of 19 the young and talented musician got signed to a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records, helping to shape him into the Prince we all knew and loved. Soon after, he went on to produce some of his most well-known records including Dirty Mind, 1999 and even Purple Rain. Throughout Princes worldwide success he won many awards, including being one of the most nominated musicians to ever...
