Vasari Art Codex

‘Barbara Windsor smacked our bottoms!’ Pet Shop Boys on showstopping visuals, horrified bosses – and snubbing the queen

The Pet Shop Boys have released a comprehensive 600-page visual monograph titled 'Pet Shop Boys: Volume,' documenting over 40 years of their aesthetic evolution. The book explores the duo's collaboration with high-profile artists, photographers, and directors including Wolfgang Tillmans, Alasdair McLellan, Derek Jarman, and long-time designer Mark Farrow. It highlights how Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe utilized the music industry's 1980s boom to treat pop music as a 'Gesamtkunstwerk' (total work of art), merging avant-garde fashion, minimalist graphic design, and cinematic music videos.

museum exhibitions schedule Jan 16, 2026 visibility 1 link 2 artists, 1 gallery

I'm bringing my Bottoms exhibition to my home city

Sunderland-born artist photographer Dean Raymond Gooch is bringing his debut solo exhibition, "Bottoms," to his home city at the National Glass Centre's NGCA gallery. Opening January 31, the show features large photographic works, screenprints, and risograph prints that explore gay identity and communities through pop art, advertising, and fashion photography. Gooch, a recent University of Sunderland graduate and current MA student, was nominated for the New Blood Art - Emerging Art Prize 2025 and received The Lizzie Rowe Award. A second exhibition, "Smoke and Mirrors," opens simultaneously, featuring 15 contemporary artists who challenge traditional landscape representation through digital and mixed media.

newspaper Sunderland Echo open_in_new Read original