Pittsburgh artist returns from UK after 30 years with gifts for the city & to watch the Buccos
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Emily Lennox (studio manager) – info@jamiemccartney.com
Jamie McCartney – jamie@jamiemccartney.com
UK studio phone +44 1273 567 869
Jamie’s cellphone +44 7961 338 045
Image 1: Jamie McCartney at his current exhibition at Design Renaissance Gallery, Brighton, UK;
Image 2: Jamie McCartney from the Sewickley Herald in from 30 years ago; [Click images for larger view]
PITTSBURGH ARTIST RETURNS FROM UK AFTER 30 YEARS
WITH GIFTS FOR THE CITY & TO WATCH THE BUCCOS
PITTSBURGH, PA (PittsburghNewsWire.com) — UK artist Jamie McCartney will return to Pittsburgh, his old hometown, after 30 years absence, bearing gifts for the city. Now a celebrated, international artist, his work courts controversy wherever he goes and he’s on his way to Pittsburgh next week with something for the Warhol Museum.
Last year he donated, rather appropriately, one of his controversial vagina artworks to the Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania Charity Art Auction. The donated work was derived from his now infamous “Great Wall of Vagina” sculpture, a 26 feet long artwork featuring casts of 400 volunteers. Its serious socio-political purpose is to ease anxieties about genital shape, which plagues so many women (particularly young women) and thus stem the exponential rise in unnecessary and potentially harmful cosmetic surgeries. It has been cited as a game changer in that battle and appears in several medical textbooks in the USA. Exhibited in 2013 at the Triennale Museum in Milan, The Great Wall of Vagina immediately put Jamie on the radars of international collectors. Although most of his artworks are figurative bronzes and photography created for private clients and galleries, it’s this socio-political work that made him famous.
Despite only one brief visit to Pittsburgh since leaving in 1991, Jamie still holds great affection for the city that launched his fine art career and maintains close friendships here to this day. His family have in their possession the only copy of a film entitled, “But The People Are Beautiful”, a BBC Omnibus production from 1973 about Andy Warhol’s first exhibition in the UK. Jamie intends to donate it to the Warhol Museum, continuing his legacy of love for his former hometown. He also intends to find a commercial gallery in the city to offer his artworks to Pittsburghers once again.
Originally from the UK, Jamie moved to the USA in 1987 to attend Hartford Art School in Connecticut. When on a visit to his parents who had moved to Edgeworth, PA, he fell in love with Pittsburgh. In 1989, during a break from art school, Jamie moved to the city and temporarily attended Pitt. During this time he held his very first solo art exhibition in Pittsburgh and sold his first artworks to the public. This was the beginning of an enviable career.
He lived on the South Side and worked for a local environmental fundraising group. Environmental action was considered a bit niche back then but today it is perhaps one of the most pressing societal concerns. Jamie’s avant-garde, socio-political roots first took a hold in Pittsburgh and have informed his artworks throughout his career, including works about the environment, body image, plastic surgery, nationalism and warfare. It is around these tricky subjects that he has made his most significant pieces, alongside less contentious, “purely aesthetic” artworks, as he calls them.
Whilst living in Pittsburgh, friends introduced Jamie to the game of baseball and the Pittsburgh Pirates, whom he still avidly follows from back home in the UK. When the Bucs were in the play offs back in the early 90s, it was at the old Three Rivers Stadium. He can’t wait to visit PNC Park and intends to be at every game of the Rockies and Dodgers home stands, checking out every corner of the park.
“It’s kind of weird following baseball in the UK. Almost nobody knows what I’m talking about and when people ask me what football team I support and I say, “The Steelers.” They tend to just stare at me blankly.”
After leaving the city to complete his Fine Art degree in Connecticut, Jamie sadly had to return to the UK for family reasons. His intention to return to live in Pittsburgh never materialised. He was lost to the city for nearly three decades until now…
At 53 years old and with his art career riding high, Jamie is now a frequent visitor to the USA on business and maintains a permanent sculpture studio in Ft Lauderdale, Florida, from where he services his many US clients. Coming to Pittsburgh next week to work with a new client here, he’s using the opportunity to make the donation to the Warhol Museum and cement new bonds here, whilst having an excellent time with friends watching the Pirates and discovering how the ‘burgh has changed since he left, half a lifetime ago as a fledgling artist.
To enjoy Jamie’s latest works visit www.jamiemccartney.com
NOTES TO EDITORS
Jamie will be in Pittsburgh 20-28th May 2019
For further information and images contact:
Emily Lennox (studio manager) info@jamiemccartney.com
Jamie McCartneyjamie@jamiemccartney.com
UK studio phone+44 1273 567 869
Jamie’s cell phone+44 7961 338 045
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