Toby Mott


Toby Victor Mott is a British artist, designer, and sometime Punk historian recognised for co-founding the Grey Organisation, a 1980s artists' collective, and for creating the fashion brand Toby Pimlico. His Mott Collection, which holds more than 1,000 punk rock posters, flyers, and fanzines, has brought him renewed attention.

Early life

Toby Mott was born in London, son of academic Jim Mott and social worker Pam.
He later studied art at Westminster Kingsway College where Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols was an alumnus. Mott was a founder member of the ASA.
Mott lived at the Carburton Street squats in Fitzrovia during the early 1980s, sharing the space with Boy George, Marilyn, Cerith Wyn Evans, Fiona Russell-Powell, and Mark Lebon. He appeared in several Derek Jarman films from this era, including The Angelic Conversation and also appearing in Gilbert & George's "Exister" pieces from 1984, currently in the Tate Collection.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s he was based in New York and Los Angeles working part-time as a bicycle messenger and as an art director for MTV making music videos for various groups, among them Public Enemy, A Tribe called Quest and The Rolling Stones. In 1989, Mott designed album cover graphics for groups such as Information Society and De La Soul, most notably their debut album 3 Feet High and Rising.

Anarchist Street Army

The Anarchist Street Army was a loose collective of young punks and anarchists from several inner city London Schools including Pimlico Comprehensive, London Nautical School, and Camden School for Girls, who congregated around an independent record shop on Wilton Road called Recordsville and attended Crass concerts.
Their motives as an organisation were varied, but had a general ethos of bringing anarchy and chaos to the London streets, such as crashing Capital Radio's Nicky Horne show in an attempt to save the Roxy, and were a forerunner to later organisations with similar attitudes such as Class War, The Wombles, and protest tactics like Black Bloc.
The ASA's motto and anthem was 'Running Riot', a punk rock song by the band Cock Sparrer.

Solo art career

Mott co-founded the Grey Organisation, an East London art collective that operated from 1983 to 1991. The group created work across film, video, and other media, which was shown at more than 20 international exhibitions. In January 1985, they staged an act of "art terrorism" by secretly placing one of their paintings in London's International Contemporary Arts Fair. A year later, they threw grey paint on gallery windows along Cork Street, London's art district hub. Members were arrested and temporarily barred from central London, prompting a move to New York City, where they showed work at the Civilian Warfare Gallery in the East Village. After GO ended in 1991, Mott worked independently, exhibiting at White Columns in New York, the Thomas Soloman Garage in Los Angeles, and Interim Art in London. The Maureen Paley gallery represented him for years.
In September 2011, Mott produced a series of paintings inspired by the 2011 England riots, the resulting exhibition 'Unrest' was exhibited at Vegas Gallery, London. Many of the paintings in the exhibition were brandished with the slogan 'All Coppers Are Bastards' in gold leaf a reference to the legendary punk/political slogan.
File:3ftHighTobyPrint.jpeg|thumb|left|De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising album artwork, Giclée print
Mott said of this exhibition "I was going to call the exhibition, 'I'll keep looting until I get caught'— a quote from a looter but which could equally apply to a banker, hose at the bottom are taking their lead from those at the top; although the rioters act in a cruder way, it is essentially the same thing."
In October 2011, Knightsbridge gallery New Contemporary presented a solo exhibition of Mott's paintings, titled 'This Means Everything'. "The show is collection of new paintings addressing our culture's present preoccupation with fame and success versus the historical background of nihilism and anarchy as epitomised by the punk movement."
In 2013, Toby Mott exhibited a print edition of the original album artwork for De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising, displayed alongside memorabilia such as Mott's original sketch, his gold disc, and other items from his private collection. Mott wrote an essay meant to accompany the exhibition in which he described the creation of the 1989 album art. He was commissioned to design the album cover by Tommy Boy Records and invited De La Soul to his New York loft. Atop a stepladder, he took the now-iconic black and white photograph of the three and added the dayglo "daisy-age" art in post-production.

The Mott Collection

Mott began his collection in the late 1970s. In addition to the iconic works of the era, notably those produced by Jamie Reid for The Sex Pistols and Linder Sterling for the Buzzcocks, it includes propaganda from political groups such as Rock Against Racism and the British National Front and memorabilia from the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II, an event that collided with punk's high-water mark in 1977. Esopus released material from the Mott Collection related to Margaret Thatcher in 2013. The special edition publication included several facsimile reproductions of archival materials and a removable insert commemorating Thatcher's polarising tenure.
Exhibitions and books from the Mott Collection include:
  • Loud Flash: British Punk on Paper, MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, March 2010 accompanied by the publication, Loud Flash: British Punk on Paper, a selection of posters and essays designed by cult designer Scott King.
  • Loud Flash: British Punk on Paper, Haunch of Venison, London, 2010 accompanied by the publication, Loud Flash: British Punk on Paper produced by Haunch of Venison. On the occasion of the exhibition at Haunch of Venison a Panel discussion took place on the subject of the enduring legacy of Punk, Moderated by Mark Ingelfield, Gallery Director, panel members: Tony D, editor of Ripped and Torn fanzine, Ray Gange, star of The Clash film Rude Boy, Toby Mott, artist, writer and collector; Teal Triggs, author of the Thames & Hudson book Fanzines, Peter York, style writer and author of The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook.
  • Crass, Andrew Roth Gallery, New York, February 2011, accompanied by the publication: Crass 1977 – 1984, PPP Editions, 2011
  • Loud Flash: British Punk on Paper, Honor Fraser, Los Angeles, July 2011 accompanied by the publication: Loud Flash: British Punk on Paper at Honor Fraser, designed by Brian Roettinger.
On the occasion of the exhibition at Honor Fraser a panel discussion took place moderated by Professor Vivien Goldman of the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, panel members: Gardar Eide Einarsson, Artist, Billy Idol, Punk Musician, Toby Mott, artist, writer and collector, Simon Reynolds, British author and music journalist.
  • We Have Our Own Concept of Time and Motion, Auto Italia South East, London, 25–28 Aug
  • Nothing in the World But Youth, Selections from the Mott Collection: Thatcher's youth, Turner Contemporary, Margate, 17 September 2011 – 8 January 2012 accompanied by the publication: Nothing in the World But Youth,
  • We Are the Writing on the Wall, MoMA PS1: NY Art Book Fair, New York City, 30 September – 2 October accompanied by the publication: 100 Fanzines/10 Years of British Punk – 1976–1985, PPP Editions On the occasion of the exhibition at MoMA PS1 a panel discussion took place on the history of British punk fanzines, moderated by Professor Vivien Goldman of the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Toby Mott, artist, writer and collector, Joly MacFie, fanzine publisher, Victor Brand writer, Michael Gonzales afro-punk music writer.
  • Jubilee 2012 – Sixty Punk Singles, The Vinyl Factory, London, 30 May – 24 June 2012.
Accompanied by the exhibition catalogue: Jubilee 2012 – Sixty Punk Singles, designed and printed by Ditto Press,
  • KRAFTWERK. 45RPM, The Vinyl Factory, London, 13 Sep – 5 October 2012.
An exhibition of forty-five 7" single covers by the German krautrock group Kraftwerk, many designed by Emil Schult.
Accompanied by the exhibition catalogue KRAFTWERK. 45RPM, designed and printed by Ditto Press,
In the catalogue's introductory essay 'Kraftwerk, Yesterday's Tomorrow', Mott describes the group's aesthetic as "an analogue past dreaming of today's digital present."
  • David Bowie – Nacht Musik, The Vinyl Factory, London, 7 Feb – 3 March 2013.
An exhibition of forty-five 7" single covers by David Bowie, from his Berlin period.
Accompanied by the exhibition catalogue David Bowie – Nacht Musik, designed and printed by Ditto Press
  • American Hardcore 1978 – 1990, Vinyl Factory, London, 11 April – 4 May 2013.
An exhibition of fifty 7" single covers by various American Hardcore Punk bands such as Black Flag, JFA, Bad Brains, & The Dicks, among others.
Accompanied by the exhibition catalogue American Hardcore 1978 – 1990, designed and printed by Ditto Press,
  • SKINHEAD - AN ARCHIVE, published 2014 by Ditto and The Mott Collection
A publication exploring one of the most controversial and radical subcultures. With printed material curated by Mott, the book examines this multifaceted culture through the lens of zines, posters, and films. The book is divided into sub-sections looking at the original iteration of skinhead, the fascist interpretation, the socialist counterpoint, queer skinhead culture, exploitation literature, skin girls, and everything in between.
  • Showboat: Punk / Sex / Bodies - Showboat is a collection published by Mott in 2016, exploring the relationship between punk and sex. Numerous people contributed to the book including Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols, Garry Bushell, filmmaker Nick Zedd, and artist Annie Sprinkle. In addition to photo galleries, the book has personal essays and lyrics from 1972 to 2016. The collection also contains never before exhibited images by Shirley Baker from the 1980s.
  • Oh So Pretty: Punk in Print 1976-1980 - In late 2016, Mott published Punk in Print, a collection of flyers, ticket stubs, and other memorabilia showing the early days of punk. The New York Observer stated the book was, "collectively, the raw, abrasive look of the promotional material from the music scene back then packs a powerful punch, presented with the immediacy of youthful creativity in an instinctive way." The book was originally published in 2015 as Punk in Print 1976-1980.