A. M. Hanson

Alexander Mark "A. M." Hanson (born 1969) is an English artist and photographer. He is based in London.

Early life

Born in 1969, adopted and raised in the Yorkshire countryside, near Leeds, in north-east England. His mother, A.A. Hanson (Leeds College of Art), is a potter.

He sang in a church choir (St. Edmund's, Roundhay, c.1980). After schools in Leeds and York, he moved from home at age 17, holding happenings in the basement of a shared house in the Harehills area of Leeds. Around the same time he attended courses with the National Youth Theatre and performed in productions at Leeds University Workshop Theatre. His first exhibited work (photo montages) shown at Leeds City Art Gallery in 1987, in a group display about new surrealism. He left the formal education system early (after a brief period at a local arts college) and moved to London in 1989. Later that year he witnesses and documents the historic collapse of the Berlin Wall.

1990s work

Photo portraiture is first published in i-D magazine (1991) and later in various publications throughout the early to mid '90s, often using the moniker Alex Sparks. Appears in a French TV commercial (1993), playing a catwalk photographer, for a hair-care product. A performance based photo series, includes an early picture of designer Alexander McQueen on the verge of fame, alongside other progressive characters, at a time when London was witnessing the so-called Brit Art Brit Pop explosion. He made film stills and appeared in the award winning Brit-flick short A Smashing Night Out (dir: M. Glamorre, 1994 BBC 10 x 10 series). Selected work from this period also later featured in QueerNation, a 20th-century group retrospective of polysexual London nightlife (Elms Lesters Painting Rooms, London 2002).

He was the only photographer to record performance artist and cultural icon Leigh Bowery's legendary last show in late 1994. Some of the work was later exhibited (including at The Fine Art Society, London 1995) and published in the monograph Leigh Bowery (various, Violette Editions 1998), prompting publisher Robert Violette to say that the photographs; "represent a crucial, defining moment of London in the 1990s". An audio/visual book, featuring collaborations between artists and musicians, We Love You (various, Booth Clibborn, Candy Records 1998) shows his print work (of Richard Torry's studio space), alongside that of more established art world figures, such as Gilbert & George, Marc Quinn and Tracey Emin (credits appear as Alex Mark Hanson called Simon).

Towards the end of the 1990s his practice begins to develop into differing thematic photo projects and display formats including installation and site-specific work. He also variously performs actions with The Offset and The Paper People collectives. A performative work is shown at LUX Centre (London, 1998). Works on paper are displayed at Vexed Generation (London, April 1999).

2000's

alexcalledsimon projects (ongoing) forms to produce and present solo and collaborative works based around a concept 'photo-related family', including one called Susan Tripod, variously exhibited, as part of live events and in publications. He appeared in "Battle of the Boutiques" at London Fashion Week (A/W 2004) wearing Missy island drawings evoked as paper hats. His performance associated photo work continued, including studies (often forming extended series) of many at the cutting edge of the avant garde and off shoots of pop culture.

Throughout the decade work was shown in various London galleries and project spaces (including; The Centre of Attention 2003, The Photographer's Gallery / group display 2007, The Residence Gallery 2008, Wolfgang Tillmans London studio space 2008, Donlon Books 2009), UK art festivals (Hackney Wicked 2008), exhibits across Europe (24London – Milan, Berlin, Barcelona 2006, t.a.g galleries, Brussels 2009), in Japan (Rice+) Tokyo 2003), in printed matter form (imprint simonsplaypen-editions, e.g. Cosmos Contact 400 2005) and published in the UK (Dance Theatre Journal 2008) and US (Gazelland magazine 2008, 2009).

2010's

In 2009 he returned to a studio based academic structure, developing new working methods, first at LCC University of the Arts London, then at the University for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, graduating in 2013. Recent production includes An Emerge (Office) readapting London's offices and related locations in lens based installed scenarios. Early work from this project was first shown at various academic spaces and then at Galleria Uno+Uno in Milan (2012). Hanson curated a group test site event at Satellite Festival 2012, and also several interdisciplinary shows whilst at UCA. Archive photographs are published in Alexander McQueen: Fashion Visionary and The Life and The Legacy (author Judith Watt, Goodman Books and Harper Design, 2012), alongside an interview text and in author Andrew Wilson's 2015 biography of the late designer. Recent collaborative projects include a series of short films set to the music of Dale Cornish.

New work, including 'photo-furniture' and oversized backlit prints, features offices re-imagined as fragments of artists' studios, in a solo exhibition A Distant, Darkened Lobby at Limbo Arts, Margate, 2014, part of the town and Turner Contemporary's Summer of Colour season. Some of this work, in a new arrangement, then transferred to show at Regent's Place Plaza, London 2014, during Frieze Art Fair Week.

External links

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