Jealous Gallery presents ‘Beauty Is In The Street’, exhibiting work that transcends the field of art, imposing on the daily lives of people by prompting them to consider and be challenged by the information provided. This exhibition includes artwork by a selection of flyingleaps’ artists, as well as Jenny Holzer, Stanley Donwood, Russell Shaw Higgs and protest posters created anonymously by students of the École des Beaux-Arts during the 1968 protests in Paris, loaned from Gerrish Fine Art.

Created during the revolutionary uprisings of 1968, the screenprinted Mai 68 posters are arguably some of the most iconic examples of polemical poster art, designed to ‘give concrete support to the great movement of the workers on strike who are occupying their factories in defiance of the Gaullist government’. The original posters will be exhibited alongside a portfolio printed by Jealous in 2018 for the anniversary of the riots, to celebrate the spirit of the revolutionary designs and will be available to purchase from the gallery.

The exhibition also features a collaboration between Jealous and flyingleaps’ artists street poster project, which began life on 23rd June 2016, the day of the UK Brexit referendum. The selection of posters on display address some of the participating artists and visual activists ongoing concerns regarding the state of the nation. Spoiler alert: it’s not looking all that great.

Continuing in the spirit of public protest, self declared ‘optimist’ Russell Shaw Higgs’, who has been pasting and graffitiing in the streets since 2013, will be exhibiting his politically driven ‘Pedestrians’, translated into print in the Jealous’ screenprint studio. These new works will be shown alongside Jenny Holzer’s timeless ‘Inflammatory Essays’; originally pasted anonymously on the streets of New York in the 1980s and which still possess the power to provoke with their contradictory views, drawn from the writings from the voices of Emma Goldman, Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Tse-tung, Leon Trotsky and more.

In conjunction with the exhibition, we will be showing and releasing a new lithographic print ‘Thief’ with prolific artist Stanley Donwood, affirming his mastery of both word and image.

Since 2002 visual activist duo kennardphillipps – Peter Kennard and Cat Phillipps – have collaborated to produce arresting, incisive and provocative works that both visualise injustice and hold it to account. Dr.D’s ‘Sly TV’ intervention, a stone’s throw away, is a Shoreditch landmark. Crafty, critical, and poignantly droll works are his stock in trade. And then there’s billboard interventions that floor us: ‘Grenfail’.

Jeremy Deller’s recent exhibition ‘Warning Graphic Content’, brought together all his print and poster works produced between 1993 – 2021. Brevity, wit and ethical concern have been a constant theme. Jill Laudet is an artist and educator whose practice examines the material and social fabric that constitutes the ‘commons’: those ideas and resources that affect the whole of a community. Robert Montgomery has made a huge variety of poetic text sculptures in fire, light and on poster billboards. His work references climate change, social justice, history, art and existential angst.

Marcus Harvey’s painting, relief works and ceramic sculptures examine and reflect on elements of British history and culture. His The Island is an ominous image of a country setting itself adrift. Magda Archer is celebrated as the contemporary queen of colourful, kitsch painting and printmaking but along with the sweetness there’s invariably a more or less obvious splinter of righteous discontent. Heath Kane’s prescient poster for flyingleaps posed the question, “Are we all heading for a future where we all travel second class?” His work is sumptuous but, just as importantly, invites us to think.

Mark Wallinger is known for making subtle, adroit and provocative art since the 1990s. Wealth inequality, critiques of power, protester rights and the vicissitudes of global politics all feature in his work. Sarah Maple combines wit, purposeful irony and a big dose of livid exasperation aimed at the systemic sexism and racism that pervades society. Her art, films and performances roar integrity, never malice. Pin sharp wordplay, dissenting rabbits, autocratic clocks and kooky anti-consumerist retro-techno bots. For decades eco-campaigning, paste-ups by Benjamin Irritant have seeded the streets with sanity.

Tim Fishlock’s art is hugely impressive. While his textual references tend towards a disconsolate view of humankind, the work’s social topicality, precision, wit and chromatic allure conjures some hope. The Artist Taxi Driver, aka Chunky Mark’s two-minute newspaper reviews on Insta. get days off to a rolling ‘OMG WTF next?’ start. His contempt for the obfuscation and lies that appear in the likes of the Daily Mail is trenchant, while his tireless public protesting heartens.