Art Auction - Arms Around the Child

Perhaps the best-known of Joe Machine’s series of paintings is The Sailors. These paintings feature events drawn directly from the artist’s experiences of growing up in the naval towns of North Kent where violence and alcoholism were endemic. As a way of dealing with these experiences Machine made hundreds of drawings throughout his childhood. These drawings became the basis of the artist’s now iconic Sailor paintings which have been exhibited nationally and internationally since the late 1990s.

The series features Sailors inspired by French author Jean Genet’s “Querelle of Brest”. The Sailors have become archetypal figures within Machine’s work and a metaphor for violence itself.

The painting “Ear Cut Off Numb with drink” depicts a violent incident the artist witnessed between two Sailors who were drinking in a pub whilst home on shore leave. A fight ensued and one of the protagonist’s ears was partially severed with a knife.

The Sailor paintings are Joe Machine’s earliest and most recognisable series of works stretching from the 1980s to the present day.

Joe Machine is a world-renowned artist, illustrator and writer described by the legendary art critic Edward Lucie- Smith as being the successor to Francis Bacon and William Blake. Having risen from a troubled upbringing and involvement in crime, he has become one of the most important British artists.

He is a founder member of the Stuckist art movement and painter in residence for the Prometheus Project in Trieste, Italy.  He has exhibited at many prestigious venues in London and the UK and internationally in the U.S.A, France, Italy and the Czech Republic. He is known for his instantly recognisable style of painting which incorporates archetypal imagery and esoteric symbolism within his religious and mythological works.

He has collaborated with the mythographer and editor of The London Magazine Dr. Steven O’Brien, on several visual exhibitions and provided illustrations for Dr. O’Brien’s book ‘Britannic Myths’.

He has also illustrated two volumes of poetry for Edward Lucie-Smith, ‘Making For The Exit’ and ‘Surviving’ as well as ‘The Beowulf Oracle’ for John Matthews.

Joe is currently working on a new series of paintings based on Dr. O’Brien’s Arthurian cycle of writings and a major exhibition ‘Saints Of Britain’ for the Vatican.

Joe Machine lives in Somerset with his wife and children.

Joe Machine is represented by Isis Phoenix Arts.

For all further information on artist, email [email protected]