Art Auction - Arms Around the Child, Timed

Charles Uzzell Edwards a.k.a. PURE EVIL grew up in Wales and was by his own account the only new romantic in the village. He spent his teenage years customizing his clothes and experimenting with eyeliner and this love of urban street style led him to do fashion degree in London where he earned a bit of a reputation as a troublemaker.

Skateboarding was another of his loves and after the Poll Tax Riots in Trafalgar Square he decided to leave Thatcherite London for a two-week trip to California, which ended up being a 10-year stay in San Francisco.

He became one of the designers for streetwear clothing line 'ANARCHIC ADJUSTMENT' and immersed himself in the music scene out there, where it seemed a British invasion of artists, musicians and DJs had hit the West Coast like a tsunami, moving there to avoid the criminal justice bill, throwing parties under full moons on the beaches of California, making electronic music and streetwear clothing for ravers, skateboarders and Silicon Valley tech guru's.

It was there that Charles started to notice the character street artwork of 'TWIST' and 'REMINISCE' and the work of other skateboard and graffiti artists, and on his return to London in 2000 he hit the ground running and after a stint working at Banksy's SANTAS GHETTO Guerrilla retail show, he started stencilling and spraying his signature bunny tag around London. The character came from the guilt he felt when he shot and killed a rabbit in the countryside when he was 10. 

In 2007 Charles opened Pure Evil Gallery his first gallery in Shoreditch on Leonard Street and six years later opened the second larger gallery two doors from the original space. The galleries have been an incubator for up-and-coming street artists from around the world and are the studio for Charles' own PURE EVIL artwork. The success of his Nightmare series of dripping celebrity portraits has taken him around the world and has recently had successful shows across the USA, and in Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Brazil and even Mongolia.