Paul Gorman is…

My playlist for the Fandangoe Discoteca opening at Canary Wharf next week

Jul 18th, 2023

//Annie Frost Nicholson with the Fandangoe Discoteca. Pic courtesy of anniefrostnicholson.com//

Next week sees the opening at London’s Canary Wharf of artist Annie Frost Nicholson’s Fandangoe Discoteca, the mini-disco installation where we can shake out our grief and help maintain daily mental health – the programme covers all intersections of grief from bereavement to climate angst to political rage to break-ups.

The design of the kiosk was inspired by De Stijl and Ettore Sottsass and holds up to eight dancers at a time.

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A selection from my archive in Subscribe, the exhibition about artists and alternative magazines at the Art Institute of Chicago

Jan 21st, 2022

//Subscribe exhibition ident//

//Artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen (right) featured in The Uniform Backlash, The i-D Bible Part 2, 1989. Photography Daniel Kohlbacher, styling Simon Foxton. Paul Gorman Archive//

Beginning in the early 1970s—as under-represented groups were demanding new forms of visibility following the emergence of political movements such as Black Power and the Stonewall Rebellion—a handful of British and American photo-driven alternative magazines came on the scene.

The Face, i-D, Rags, Out/Look, and other new publications amplified marginalized voices, especially those of queer makers and makers of colour, and made room for those makers to question who and what was accepted as mainstream. These publications introduced a hybrid model within the magazine industry: combining the high production standards and engagement with fashion of “powerhouse” publications such as Vogue and Life with the use of collage in zines and the text/image provocations of underground newspapers. In the end, these alternative magazines transformed their industry.

From the introduction to Subscribe.

Two years ago, just as the enormity of the pandemic was emerging, I met American curators Solveig Nelson and Michal Raz-Russo in London to discuss making a contribution to an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago about the significance of alternative magazines to Western culture.

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Rarely seen images from the 1988 Malcolm McLaren exhibition Impresario with news that my MM bio will be published in April 2020

Apr 10th, 2019

//Window display for Impresario at the New Museum, Sept 16 – Nov 20, 1988. Image from the New Museum Digital Archive//

//Introduction to the show. Image from the New Museum Digital Archive//

My biography of the late Malcolm McLaren will now be published in April 2020, exactly 10 years after his premature death at the age of 64.

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‘Any person can tweet an outrageous statement. It takes commitment, consideration and care to produce an outcome which will last forever’

Jun 27th, 2018

Here’s a clip of me being interviewed about PRINT! Tearing It Up, which is free to visitors to Somerset House in central London until August 22:

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Sonos Song Stories: Bowie In Berlin photographic display of rarely seen images

Apr 25th, 2018

//Large renditions of photographs from the 1977 session in Tokyo with Masayoshi Sukita for  the “Heroes” sleeve. Photo courtesy Sonos//

To mark the opening earlier this month of the new Sonos store in Berlin – the home leisure company’s first retail presence in continental Europe – I was invited to organise a display of photography relevant to David Bowie’s creative connections to the city.

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Song Stories: Bowie at Sonos NYC until January 7

Dec 18th, 2017

//Song Stories: Bowie at Sonos New York City. Photo: Mary Kang//

//Song Stories: Bowie at Sonos New York City. Photo: Mary Kang//

Song Stories: Bowie, the display of photographs I selected to track the late superstar’s relationship with the city of his adoption, is at the Sonos store in New York’s Soho until January 7.

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‘He stuck out his tongue and made devil faces in the glass’: The Conformist to feature artists, designers, writers, performers, utopians, outsiders, posers, perverts and other figures who have affronted or inverted the idea of ‘conformity’

Dec 19th, 2015

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I am among the participants in The Conformist, a group exhibition being organised for the New Year by artist Paul Kindersley at the gallery of Julia Muggenburg’s extraordinary London art/jewellery establishment Belmacz.

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Eyes For Blowing Up Bridges catalogue published this Friday

Nov 10th, 2015

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The catalogue for exhibition Eyes For Blowing Up Bridges: Joining The Dots From The Situationist International To Malcolm McLaren is published on Friday (November 13).

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Derek Boshier: Rethink/Re-entry – Works of the 1970s/Recent films & collages at Flowers Cork Street this autumn

Aug 25th, 2015
Derek-Boshier-The-Dance-2014-Ink-and-collage-on-paper-c-Derek-Boshier-Courtesy-of-Flowers-Gallery

//The Dance, from the series News From The Metropolis, Derek Boshier, 2014. Ink and collage on paper//

DB - Stills Best Foot Forward 3

//From Best Foot Forward, Derek Boshier, 2014. Film//

To coincide with the publication of the Derek Boshier monograph Rethink/Re-entry, writer/curator Guy Brett and I are putting together an exhibition of the same name which will be held at Flowers Gallery in Cork Street, Central London this autumn.

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PRINT @SHOWStudio: Interviewed by Lou Stoppard and shots from my magazine archive

Jul 21st, 2015

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The launch of SHOWStudio’s new series PRINT features an interview with me by editor Lou Stoppard about my magazine archive.

There is also a section dedicated to images from the archive, including front covers, spreads and ads.

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