Jamie Reid

JAMIE REID

BIOGRAPHY

Jamie Reid, photograph by Sophie Polyviou

Artist, iconoclast, anarchist, punk, hippie, shit-stirring rebel and romantic.

Jamie Reid (1947-2023)

On leaving art college in 1970, Reid co-founded the radical Suburban Press where he developed his unique style of cut ups and sloganeering.

His iconoclastic defacements of pop culture and nationalistic images with ransom note lettering became synonymous with punk rock, and his most famous imagery defined an era: exemplified in the cover art for the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks, Anarchy In The UK, & God Save The Queen.

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Jamie Reid, God Save Us All, 2017

Since then he continued to make politically progressive art, protesting against nuclear weapons, racism, the criminal justice bill, and more recently, Trump. His socialist beliefs were matched a deeply esoteric and pagan practice: Reid was an advocate for spiritual as well as political change.

His works are held in collections by New York’s Museum of Modern Art, London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, and Tate Modern Gallery.

Jamie Reid had been working with L-13 since 2004, when he contributed to the exhibition Pax Britannica Art: Against War.

JAMIE REID PROJECTS