JJ ADAMS

The son of a baptist preacher, JJ emigrated as a child from Plymouth in the UK to Cape Town in South Africa in the early eighties. Adams spent much of his youth around the studio of South African contemporary landscape artist Derric van Rensburg, where he discovered his love of bright colour and `graphic`art. JJ studied graphic design at Cape College whilst working as an apprentice in `Wildfire Tattoos` a busy tattoo studio in central Cape Town while also working part-time as backstage crew for international bands visiting South Africa after the end of the Apartheid era. JJ finally returned to the UK in 1998 with the aim of becoming a tattoo artist. After a number of frustrated years living in London and working in Camden Market struggling to make ends meet, JJ moved back to Plymouth to further study commercial printing at the Plymouth College of Art and Design. Over the next several years he worked as a graphic designer in the South West of England and then moved into sign making and advertising. In 2009 after selling a few of his acrylic paintings through a local gallery he decided it was time to move back to London and finally pursue his art career. Adams uses a range of mixed media in his work from spray paint to hand painting acrylics, screen printing, collage and digital matte painting as well as photography. He admits being influenced at art school by artists like Norman Rockwell, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Sir Peter Blake and more obscure artists such as Guy Peelleart, Hipgnosis and Storm Thorgerson and lowbrow artists like Coop, Jim Phillips and Graham Coton who was a World War II comic book artist. JJ Adams works from his studio overlooking the Thames Barrier in Woolwich, South East London.

Rennies Gallery' Bold Street, Liverpool

Craig Davison

was born in 1965 in Sheffield and enjoyed drawing for as long as he could remember. Art was his favourite subject at school, but once he left he took it no further. In the late 80’s he managed to get a job as a cartoonist, working on pre-school comics. He drew comic strips of a variety of characters including The Shoe People, The Wombles, Huxley Pig and Bangers and Mash.

Craig Davison hails from Sheffield, South Yorkshire and has created art, in one form or another, most of his life. 

Having initially worked as a cartoonist drawing for pre-school comics he entertained children all over the country with his comic strips featuring a variety of well known characters including The Shoe People, The Wombles, Huxley Pig and Bangers and Mash. 

As a natural progression to his comic strips he then worked as an animator and games designer on a portfolio of games including Zorro, The Hulk and The Hurricanes and Johnny Bazookatone; as well as a sculptor creating reference figures for 3D animation, sculpting anything from dragons to teddies and animals to action figures for ranges such as Me To You, Enchantica, Harry Potter and Doctor Who. 

In late 2007 he decided to try the more traditional medium of art and put his efforts into painting for the first time. Having entered an art competition on television and finished in the top three Craig realised that this was the medium for him. 

Rennies Gallery Liverpool

Craig Davison Art