Portsmouth artists Pompey Banana Club, Ashley John and Karl Bailey host one-weekend only exhibition - The Mash-Up

The Mash-Up exhibition features work from the Southsea-based artists Pompey Banana Club, Ashley John and Karl Bailey from Friday to Sunday, July 29-31, at The Warehouse at 83 Marmion Road

At Friday’s opening night, queues gathered before the 6.30pm doors. A steady stream of art-lovers kept the space busy with Two Thirds Beer serving craft beer from Fallen Acorn Brewery in Gosport.

Ashley John’s current practice uses collage and text to explore social and political issues. The collages repurpose found or discarded materials whilst text-based works frequently culminate as hand-drawn poems; these are often placed publicly as a form of gentle disruption. The new collage works featured in the exhibition are an extension of a series forged in the first lockdown – processing themes of chronic illness, resistance and labour versus capital.

Karl Bailey is documentary photographer. His practice has been primarily concentrated in the city of Portsmouth, in particular, observations of the everyday, history, themes of memory and the changing urban landscape including the way people interact with it. All of these come together to establish a unique ‘Pompey’ identity. Karl is exhibiting his new work Fascination, which ties together various photo stories within a newspaper format. His work also features Greece and Zhengzhou in China.

Pompey Banana Club is a creative collective influenced by the culture, habitat, and language of the city. Their work subverts well-known fruit brands by combining it with Pompey slang. PBC are showcasing new work alongside some classics.

Ashley said: ‘I’ve known George (Bodkin from PBC) for a long time, and I saw Karl’s work on Instagram during lockdown. I sent him a message saying his work was amazing, and when we could the three of us started having a few beers together and throwing ideas around. We rated each others work and wanted to do something together – this is the result.

George added: ‘We were amazed so many people turned up this evening. Just doing it for the weekend it like a nice little injection.’

The exhibition is open 10am-4pm, Saturday and Sunday.

On Sunday Bubblehead Barista and Do You Know The Bagelman? will be serving coffee and bagels.