The 2009 Pictopia exhibition will playfully explore the phenomenon of contemporary character design and art.

Graphic designers, artists, animators, media and 3D designers work with a shared set of signs, opening up new contexts and correlations. The exhibition will examine the contemporary vague of reduced figuration as a strategy for producing a vitalism outside established narratives.

These so-called characters are reduced to the anthropomorphic function of eye contact which seems to look out from flat pictorial space at the viewer. The title “Pictopia” is a reference to the promise and desire that these characters exude, without ever being able to deliver.

Along with a collection of original works by our very own Ben Frost, including the originals of Apocalypse The Musical and Free While They Last, the Pictopia exhibition will include work by a stellar line up of artists including Aaron Stewart, AJ Fosik, Akinori Oishi, Borris Hoppek, Daniel & Geo Fuchs, Doma Collective, Doudouboy, Friends With You, Hideaki Kawashima, Ian Stevenson, James Marshall, Mark Ryden, Motomichi Nakamura, Nagi Noda, Rinzen, Sam Gibbons, Shoboshobo, Tim Biskup and Waynehorse.

To celebrate Ben's inclusion in the Pictopia, we have the prints of Apocalypse The Musical and Free While They Last for just £95 each.