The unique work of Prefab77 has been championed by artrepublic for the last few years and after selling out every print they’ve produced it’s time to spread the word on their fantastic, very anti-establishment, art.
Prefab77 are a collective of artists based in the North East of England, leaving New York in 2001 just as the dust was settling from the fallout of 9/11 and relocating to Newcastle upon Tyne.
The area they are now based is steeped in a volatile history of unions, struggles and movements which heavily influences their work creating fast, hard-edged, stripped down artwork; often political, anti-establishment and always beautiful. They weave small bites of modern popular culture, vintage NME headlines, pure British rock 'n' rebellion into traditional iconic British imagery.
Through their art Prefab77 seem to have done what few other 21st century post-punk artists have achieved; creating an aesthetic that is inherently punk, harking back to the movement that produced art from the likes of Jamie Reid et al, without actually mimicking the look of the work from that era.
Their work could easily be described as neo-punk and where as artists such as Banksy led the way with a staunch antiwar, anti military occupation message (mainly in response to current affairs at the time) Prefab77 are creating images that respond equally to today’s affairs: that of our domestic political situation and general disillusionment towards being British and exactly what this means.
They found that they had something profound to say that they couldn’t do through the time tested exchange of design/money/food that is the design industry, so PREFAB was born, a voice to their desires, frustrations and grumpiness.
Prefab’s work offers a reflection on all our popped aspirations of achieving wealth. Our houses are barely worth the price of the lawn feed we bought for them. No more cheap goods, no more cheap oil, no more sunny summers and no more cheap fuel…welcome to the world of Prefab77.
