Stu Harrison
What opened the third eye of artist Stu, aka Beastly? A visit to New York in 1988 and a meeting with graffiti master Futura 2000? Exposure to the psychedelic artwork of Stanley Mouse, Rick Griffin and other alumni of San Francisco’s famed Avalon Ballroom? His immersion in the UK rave scene of the late eighties and early nineties, where he designed visuals and handpainted backdrops for warehouse parties in Hackney, inspired by such underground legends as Spiral Tribe and the Mutoid Waste Company?
They all played their part, and their influence can still be seen in his vivid, kinetic and synapse-sparking street style artwork. Seeking to visually represent volume, rhythm and glorious chaos, these rolling, boiling images see energy and abandon collide, sparking excitement, exuberant confusion and the kind of mind-expanding insights, says Stu, “that you usually find during a sweaty night on the dancefloor, the ones that make you laugh and think at the same time.”
Many of his pieces take a Synesthetic approach, attempting to visually represent music.
Stu’s work has appeared in magazines including Mixmag, creating the Aphex Twin comic strip, and others now in the great newsagents in the sky, such as Jockey Slut and DJ Magazine. Select Magazine commissioned him to travel to Berlin and illustrate the dancefloor of the new Berghain night club, as no interior shots yet existed,due to a no photos policy. He has also designed streetwear for Nike and Urban Vinyl toys for Kidrobot, worked on album cover artwork for Warners and, in 1994, he was chosen by the V&A museum to be a consultant on the street style exhibition, curated by Ted Polhemus, about British street culture, his speciality being club culture,Acid house and Techno.
Larger scale artworks include murals in London nightclubs such as The Iceni, and an entire double decker bus.
Commercial clients include The BBC, creating all the animated assets for the BAFTA winning “Level UP” project.Other children’s media and animation clients include Youtube ,My Little Pony ,Kellogg’s, M&S, Disney, Sony, Oxford University Press,B.T.,Virgin, M.T.V., Wall’s, Mars, Channel 4,Asda, Clarks, Sainsbury’s,Nivea, Motorola,and the Transformers.
He has also been represented by agents in the UK,Europe,The US and Japan.