First look at the new Judy Blame exhibition at Institute of Contemporary Arts in London

Even if you’re a connoisseur of the tiny credits that run on fashion-magazine photoshoots, you may not have known one interesting fact about Judy Blame: that, like Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson and more – he’s a bloke, a product of the early-1980s London squat scene that gave the world such exhibitionist dressers as Boy George and the late Leigh Bowery. With safety pins, buttons, bottle tops and plastic bags comprising the bulk of his modest inventory, Blame became court jeweller to this motley crew when they hit the clubs.

In 1985, Blame helped set up The House of Beauty and Culture in East London, a craft collective of friends and like-minded artists, which proved to be the first of a very long list of collaborative experiences. Working alongside fashion designers Christopher Nemeth and Richard Torry, as well as furniture making duo Frick + Frack, his circle soon got a reputation for their handmade one-offs.

Joining photographer Ray Petri’s fashion tribe – the Buffalo Boys – Blame turned his hand to fashion styling and was soon producing editorials for the likes of i-D, The Face and Blitz, working some of the industry’s most notorious photographers – Juergen Teller, Jean-Bapstiste Mondino and Mark Lebon – and creating some of the most radical and memorable imagery of recent British popular culture.

It turned out to be a transferable skill. Soon he was acting as art director to such pop divas as Neneh Cherry and Bjork, and consulting creatively for designers from Comme des Garcons and Gareth Pugh to Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton. And now he has a show of his own at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London.

open image in gallery

Judy Blame: Never Again, however, is not a retrospective. He’s keen to make that clear. Instead, he’s showing a montage of artefacts, including clothing, collages, jewellery, fashion editorials, sketchbooks and T-shirts along with some more recent collaborative work: drawings by the artist and infamous night-clubber Trojan (2012), paintings by the late poet David Robilliard (2014) and photographs by Smiler, the one-time squatter aka Mark Cawson (2015).

If you want a souvenir of the Blame culture, there will be a limited edition zine on sale in the shop. But our hero – whose trademark has always been tactile, immediate, visible shock – will also be offering his own commentary on the digital age.

open image in gallery

Blame, of course, is unique. Never again, indeed. But upstairs, another show – Artistic Differences – will celebrate his collaborative side, bringing together artists and designers who with whom he has worked throughout his career. (These include Charles Atlas, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Derek Jarman and Tim Noble.) Aiming to present Blame’s work in a wider artistic context, the show will feature a previously lost film, intimate photographs and an interview with Blame himself.

Judy Blame’s solo exhibition is at the ICA, London W1, until 11 September, and ‘Artistic Differences’ until 4 September