Pick Me Up Exhibition at Somerset House

Pick Me Up has been a regular event hosted at Somerset House for 6 years now but it is beyond me why I haven't stumbled across it before. It hosts a range of work from graphic designers, photographers, illustrators and artists, as well as up-coming shops and some pop-up stores as well. To visit the exhibition you can pay an entrance fee of £10 (£8 concessions) however this allows you to only see the exhibition one time and this is where a clever sales pitch has come in. Due to the fact that the exhibition has live speakers throughout the day, it changes speakers throughout the short time that the event is on, therefore Somerset House sells a 'festival ticket' for £17 (£14 if you got it a week before the event) which allows unlimited entry into the exhibition. This is a much better cost option if you a planning on visiting it more than once.

The work displayed in the main section of the gallery is from Gaurab Thakali, Hattie Newman, Jack Cunningham, Jennifer Argo, Laura Callaghan, Laura Jouan, Luke Evans, Peter Judson, Rop van Mierlo, Sara Andreasson, Thomas Lamadieu and Zoe Taylor, all of whom I've collected my favourite piece from each of them into a small collection for showcasing the range of techniques, styles and art across the exhibition (below).

A piece of work from each artists. From left to right and top to bottom: Jennifer Argo, Laura Callaghan, Peter Judson, Sara Andreasson, Rop van Mierlo, Zoe Taylor, Hattie Newman, Laura Jouan, Gaurab Thakali, Luke Evans, Thomas Lamadieu and Jack Cunningham

This section of the exhibition was inspiring and eye-opening to a range of new methods of creating art such as Luke Evans who uses an old laser printer and static electricity and Jack Cunningham who used a 3D printer. I loved the small sections set up in the centre of the room showing the artists, tools, equipment or thought processes around their ideas. Below are pages from Peter Judson's notebook and I love the satirical aspect to them.

'Why is scale important? Visual representation of how much procrastination took place.'

To-do list: what he should be doing vs what he actually does

The next section of the exhibition is held above all the artists' work displayed below. Up the stairs is a relatively narrow corridor, with a high ceiling, that has the selection of up and coming designers and graphic companies selling their work. But these are no ordinary shops, they display their work but you can also meet the designers/shop owners and talk to them about their products. As well as that many were making custom made items and there were lots of interactive aspects. From getting a graphic design taro reading to getting a T-shirt printed, there was so much on offer.

Following this section, but parallel to it, were the pop-up shops for example, Lazy Oaf which had a little room that was perfectly decorated. Along this corridor was also the 'Pick Me Up Platform' were the live speakers talk. I stumbled in mid-way through a talk from the political cartoonist Martin Rowson. His opinions and thoughts were truly interesting and incredibly humorous with the audience laughing at every other sentence he had to say about David Cameron/George Osbourne/Nick Clegg/the coalition/Boris Johnson or politics in general. His cartoons have such a satirical tone to them and anything that mocks the current politicians is my kind of humour. 

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my day at the exhibition and I may have to admit that it has been my favourite exhibition in a long time. The atmosphere was so relaxed and inspiring - I loved that it showed such a strong range of work that anyone could have found something they liked and the refreshing and current idea about having pop-up shops has set the bar so much higher for me. I simply cannot wait until I return this coming Saturday for another day.

Where: Somerset House - Embankment Galleries

Event: Pick Me Up

Nearest tube: Temple or Embankment

Cost: £10 per day/ £17 for unlimited entry

Dates: 23rd April - 4th May