Dangerous Minds Bio
Michael Lake-McMillan (b.1958 England) Living and working in London
Alan David Stuart (b.1967 Ireland) Living and working in London
Education: Classically trained at the coal face of creativity, the Artists education stems from the professional demiurgic world.
A natural inclination to artistic expression has led to careers in model making, movie props, graphic and web design, fashion photography, animatronics, theatrical makeup, scenic painting, set design and many points in between.
In 2014 the Artist’s took the plunge into the heady maelstrom of the Art World with the cry of ‘I’ve got your back! With too many ideas and an explicit need to create it was the only option for these two. With a near obsessional passion for technique, substrate and finish the duo have created an immaculate and diverse collection of works.
Following a very successful first studio solo show in their 5,000sq studio at Elephant and Castle the pair have go on to host several very well received solo shows, a myriad of group shows and charity auctions.
http://dangerousminds.co.uk/author/alan-stuart-dm/
DANGEROUS MINDS INTRO
February 5, 2017 by Alan Stuart
So, here we are writing our first blog!
Very excited and pleased to welcome you to our blog…
After a lot of deliberation, we finally agreed on what our first blog is going to be about. We thought we would take you on a journey- the journey we have been through as Dangerous Minds Artists, the highs and lows, oh my god and wow moments….and show you what art really means to us. So, come on in and make yourself comfortable…and get ready to get inspired.
Our story began way back in 2014 when two maverick creatives decided to work together, attracted by our mutual admiration of each other’s work from which we developed a strangely productive team, based on the peculiar ways that our minds worked and the overlap of our mutual fascinations… antiquity, absurdity and the generally darker side of life…
Prior to our involuntary symbiotic collusion, we both had vast experience in all aspects of the creation of outlandish and bizarre props and installations… But Dangerous Minds Artists per se began as a reaction to, and inspiration from, the crucible of super high end event design and fabrication, and having a burning desire to create much more permanent work.
The memories are still very vivid of our first studio in Elephant and Castle… an amazing opportunity to create havoc in 5000 square feet of Zone One prime real estate… and the debut show in June 2015. Visitors had the opportunity to risk life and limb whilst coming to see a body of work that one prestigious reviewer said…”should be bought outright and kept together for posterity”…! OMG, KIN-ELL insert whatever expletive works…
With that endorsement still ringing in our ears, we found ourselves under the Damoclean sword of robber barons and developers… the dreaded bow wave of ‘Gentrification’, enveloping us and the rest of the ‘diamond geezer’ creatives, theatricals etc. in our cosy little enclave…
No sooner had Dangerous Minds found their feet, than we immediately set about wearing out our boots in the search for a new home…!
By a stroke of incredible good fortune we found a farm house in Brentwood, yes the home of TOWIE…! Fortunately the shiny orange people are scared of mud so don’t venture out this far… which means that we can carry on working in splendid isolation… with wild fallow deer and rabbits for company in what many fantasise as ‘Darling Buds Of May’, bucolic bliss. The reality can be slightly different however… water freezing in the print studio, fly tipping in the drive and three miles to the nearest shop… which is hardly worth going to.
But never the less, the absence of metropolitan distractions means that we can really get down to smashing out new work, testing new techniques and investigating ideas that would be just about impossible in the newly sanitized and utterly unaffordable London.
The pressing schedule for our Saatchi show, precludes further ramblings and reminiscences… but as it says on the show invite… FURTHER COMMUNICATION INEVITABLE!
The personal online exhibition ‘Present From The Past’ of works by Dangerous Minds Artists is held on the gallery website from 1st to 31st March 2020. Visit the exhibition at http://www.hayhill.com/docs/dangerous_minds.html
Happenings at Hay Hill Gallery 