Artist Spotlight: Guy Gee Where Would You Like to Go?
Are you looking for art that will take you away?
Here at the Rose Gallery, we know that many of our visitors are drawn to works which transport them somewhere else - maybe the power of the sea or a quiet woodland, it could be a place which means something special or somewhere from the imagination. Art can help you dream and remember.
Terence Stamps - Vintage Stamp Art
The work of Guy Gee is art that transports, with travel, photography and design inspiring his works, you’ll find yourself drawn into other worlds.
His website tells us that ‘Guy Gee is a London artist working primarily in sculpture, set and interior design’, and it’s clear immediately that he is creating something very different. In an exciting career, Guy has created art from eye-catching magazine covers and magnified matchboxes, while also working on television adverts for Coca-Cola, Cadbury’s and Marks & Spencer.
Most widely known for his ‘Terence Stamps’ collection, Guy Gee’s obsession with vintage stamps began when he came across a Japanese stamp from the 1890s. We’re all so familiar with postage stamps, it’s easy to ignore how (invented in England in 1840) they transformed global communication. Each nation could now create their own stamps making them the first form of mass media graphic design - telling a story of a place and culture, these were already miniature artworks celebrating places and providing recipients with an image of another world.
Reimagining these postage stamps, Guy uses digital print to revise each piece, editing and blending layers then cutting each one by hand before framing. Changing the designs of the originals slightly, he elevates often flat images to create vibrant stamp art.
Notably, in 2021, Guy was commissioned by Stanley Gibbons, “the home of stamp collecting”, to collaborate on a reproduction of the world’s most expensive postage stamp. The One Cent Magenta had recently been purchased by Stanley Gibbons at Sotheby’s New York for $8.3million and Gee’s artwork depicting the stamp is now on display at their office at 399 The Strand, London.
Celebrating Travel - Art Prints That Inspire
Guy Gee’s wonderful collection is new to us here at the Rose Gallery, and we’re excited to hear people’s thoughts.
We love the Queen Elizabeth Stamp, created to celebrate her life, in a limited run of only 96 (one for every year of her life); while the Japan Stamp was the one which started Guy’s journey with stamps and presents a beautifully illustrated design.
Gee has created works from the stamps of over 200 nations, a real celebration of travel and culture, presenting far flung locations in these atmospheric retro designs. Whether you’re a traveller, a collector or simply drawn to these designs, each work - with its many layers - really does represent another place and time.
We’d love for you to explore these pieces with a huge variety in colours and textures, illustrations and designs. Maybe you’ll be drawn to the place you said ‘I do’, the vibrant beauty of a graphic illustration or the representation of a historical moment that means something to you; you can find them all here.
Click here to visit the Guy Gee collection.
