The Woolff Gallery is delighted to present a dynamic selection of artwork from UK artist Keith Haynes. In this exhibition Haynes (born London 1963) presents a precious collection of vinyl, re-worked and re-shaped into colourful, bold and familiar snapshops of popular culture, resulting in a playful and nostalgic exploration of popular music culture from his past to the present day.

Keith’s work is noteworthy for his interesting choice of materials, creating works from the ‘clutter’ of pop culture - button badges, CDs or vinyl records. Whether it’s a graphically iconic portrait or a meaningful song lyric, each piece is created from original vinyl records chosen to enhance the subject matter, Haynes considers the subject and the object to be of equal importance within his practice.

On leaving Harrow Art School with a BA(hons) Haynes worked as a designer and director at the BBC where his work featured in some of the most influential music and arts programmes of the past 20 years. In 1993 a selection of his video work was included in an exhibition of experimental and avant-garde television design held at the ICA. His current work has been exhibited extensively in the UK and abroad, and can be found in private collections in Europe, America, Hong Kong and Singapore.

“In a 1981 interview with The Face magazine, Barney Bubbles (the artist behind Ian Dury and Stiff Records) said: “All it is is rock and roll and it’s no big shakes. But at the same time I think commercial design is the highest art form. That confirmed to me what I already knew: It’s only Rock and Roll... it’s only graphic design... it’s my idea of Art…

So with a bedroom wall and head full of Barney, Linder, Jamie Reid, Phillip Saville and Ray Lowry I took myself off to art school with thoughts of following in their shadow.

30 years on, in a digital world where music is losing touch with the visceral and visual, my work explores this populist art form – album sleeves, record labels, badges and, of course, beautiful, black vinyl – not only as its subject but also as its raw material”. Keith Haynes