MSR FCJ

In rejection of conventional attitudes towards art, Mike S Redmond and Faye Coral Johnson (MSR FCJ) consciously push experimental ideas of lo-fi making through intuitive collaborative line and narrative-based work. Both with a background in drawing, comics, and self-publishing, the duo often plays with structural elements of these smaller-scale mediums by translating them into larger-scale works. Reworked and built up over time, mutating scenes reveal themselves through their back-and-forth process. Figures and forms exist in places like piles of doodles forming in a sketchbook. An ephemeral quality of the in-between and unfinished is imperative to the duo's eye; the images feel alive, lived in, or are still yet to be discovered. Through their collaborative exchange, somewhere between the chaos and harmony of melding visual ideas, there is a complete merging, a powerful synergy that is unforeseen and mind-bogglingly personal.

Since 2006, MSR FCJ has been filling walls and pages throughout the UK, Europe, and the US. Mike studied at the The Royal College of Art in London, and Faye at The Manchester School of Art. Between them, they have won 1st and 2nd prizes for the V&A Illustrator Awards (2011/12). They have published and exhibited work in the UK, the US, and Europe. Recent publications; ‘Bubbling Pitch’ FPCF Editions FR (2020), ’Dreaming About Worms Again’ Very Bon UK (2021), ‘The Green Stranger’ Café Royal Books UK (2021). Recent solo shows:

‘Happy I Have your Head’ Galleri Golsa Oslo, Norway (2024), ‘Puff & Watch’ Andy’s Gallery Stockholm, Sweden (2023), Pap Er Popper Sound’ Simchowitz DTLA, US (2023), ‘Cartoon Moon’ Andy’s Gallery Stockholm (2021), ‘Bubbling Pitch’ HOME Mcr UK (2020) ’Bum Steer Heap’ V1 Gallery Copenhagen (2018). They have been awarded artist residencies at Cape Town Art Residency (2023), IASPIS Sweden (2022), Hospitalfield’s Scotland (2019), and Bibliothek Andreas Zust Switzerland (2017).

www.msrfcj.com

@msr_fcj