Director, Glenn Lowry: Lucy McKenzie works in a diverse practice that includes not only painting and printmaking but also writing, fashion and music.
While living in Warsaw in 2003 she and artist Paulina Olowska ran a temporary bar called Nova Popularna. The Nova Popularna posters advertised events that took place there. Lucy McKenzie.
Artist, Lucy McKenzie: These don’t really look like advertising posters ‘cause they look so blank in a way. I have a very romantic notion of the poster because there’s been times when I’ve see a poster that’s been very mysterious but I’ve gone to that event on the strength of the poster. So I want these to have a little bit of a feeling of that too.
I designed them with Paulina Olowska but I fabricated them myself. I’ve never really trained as a printmaker, so these were made in the simplest way possible. It was just stretcher bars with some organza silk stretched over it. And then all the images were cut out of paper and printed with water-based paints. And they had to be done very, very fast because we tended to have an event every Saturday night.
The one with the piano was opening night. The one with the figure in the shape of an H, was Paulina’s silhouette making the shape of the letter H. And that was for Evening of Typography.
The one that looks a little bit like metal work, that was to advertise a concert by the band Donatella.