News
Paintings
Gordon's paintings are a lesser-known part of his practice but often inform his wider creative output. Sticking to a 10 × 15 cm postcard format these investigations incorporate found ephemera and typography, a less formal exploration of thoughts and ideas that overlap with his more well known public artworks.
An archive has begun to collate them here.
Trading Words Stage 2
Work nears completion on the production of the second stage of Trading Words for the London Dock development in Wapping, East London.
November 2022
A memorial plaque to renowned Sheffield Master Cutler Stan Shaw. Cast in iron with inlaid bronze knives the plaque will be installed outside Sheffield's Cutlers Hall.
Stan began his career as an apprentice at 14 years old making multi-bladed pocket knives with handles from materials such as mother of pearl and tortoiseshell. A master craftsman, Stan made knives entirely by hand after learning all of the distinct components of the profession, such as forging, grinding, and hafting, which were usually subdivided. Stan made knives for many notable figures including The Queen, some US presidents and Elvis Presley, his knives are now highly collectable.
More information here
September 2022
Down to Earth nears completion
Alex and his team in Australia have completed production on Gordon's latest commission 'Down to Earth'. The artwork to be sited at St Peters Interchange parkland in Sydney is a series of typographic brick spheres with texts from eminent Australian writers, poets and lyricists.
August 2022
November 2021
Shortlisted Artist – Agatha Christie Memorial Proposal
An initial proposal for an Agatha Christie memorial for Torbay. 'A Granite Gathering of Question Marks' is put forward as a celebration of the life and work of the Queen of Whodunit's.
A question mark is a punctuation mark that indicates an interrogation point in many languages. A whodunit or whodunnit – who (has) done it? – is a complex, plot-driven detective story in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus.
The question marks ????? are points to both her life and her work. The variety of ?'s in typography is a small wardrobe of possibilities and possible themes.
"Words Mademoiselle, are only the outer clothing of ideas."
Sept 21, 2019
A new park-square to commemorate the Capaci bombing has been formally opened in Albano Sant'Alessandro, Bergamo, Italy.
Dedicated to the Italian prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo and their police escorts who died in the Mafia assassination in Palermo on May 23rd, 1992. The memorial has been created in collaboration with De8 architetti studio, Why Not Associates and the landscape architect Laura Gatti.
May 2019
Gordon has been commissioned by Cultural Capital to create a series of artworks for a park space surrounding the new St Peters Interchange in western Sydney.
The interchange, described as one of Australia's largest infrastructure projects, is aimed at linking Sydney’s existing motorway network and alleviating the cities congestion nightmare.
The interchange will reclaim a former clay pit, brickworks and landfill site, with a predominately underground motorway scheme. The material from the underground works will form a new hilly open space created for use by the local community.
May 16, 2018
Cast in iron this project builds on the original and much-loved Walk of Art created at YSP in 2002. The artwork will form the entrance to the new visitor centre that is due to open in 2019. As a fundraising initiative supporters can have their names immortalised in the path to be enjoyed by future generations.
Find out more here
February 25, 2017
"Radioactive waste can remain dangerous to humans for 100,000 years. Nations with nuclear power are building underground storage facilities to permanently house it, but how might they mark these sites for future generations…"
Gordon has presented a documentary for BBC Radio 4.
It will be broadcast on Thursday 2nd March at 11.30am
Listen to it here
February 22, 2017
Trading Words documents the creation on Gordon’s latest public artwork at London Dock, Wapping. An accompanying exhibition at Counter House runs until 30th April 2017.
Counter House
9 Arrival Square
London E1W 2AA
Open: Monday – Sunday 10.00 – 18.00
free Admission
October 9, 2014
The Comedy Carpet has won the much coveted International Society of Typographers award for 2014. Held every three years, the Award recognises significant typographic achievement and excellence.
June 15, 2014
The Comedy Carpet has a mention in an article featured on the Design Council’s website. Written by Wayne Hemingway it considers ‘generous’ design and why it doesn’t take ‘starchitects’ or big pots of money to create inspiring public places.
“Remarkable examples of beautiful and truly generous design are popping up all around the world. By generous, I mean places designed for people to use, enjoy and improve – at no cost and for no profit…”
On the Comedy Carpet…
“This is urban design and art in the landscape working together in a seamless and perfect fashion. It celebrates kitsch, history and modernity, and has something for all tastes.
Visitors love the Comedy Carpet and they cannot stop photographing it and talking about it. Just look it up on Twitter or flickr or Google images, it is staggering how many images you’ll see. Bingo – success.”
June 11, 2014
Type Spaces – Typography in Three Dimensional Spaces has been published by Basheer Graphic books in Singapore. It features various projects including The Comedy Carpet, Walk of Art and Pobl + Machines.
January 14, 2014
Gordon has taken part in Aesthetics City at Shanghai’s Power Station of Art. The theme of this years event was centred around advocating the use of design to realise more creative lives and the use of aesthetics to build an ideal city. Gordon gave a lecture on his recent projects and exhibited along side a group of internationally renowned artists and designers. Click or swipe the image to see more photos.
November 20, 2013
The Comedy Carpet, Blackpool: The Making of a World Class Monument to Comedy has been published by Booth-Clibborn. The 208 page book documents the making of the largest work of public art in Europe with an essay by Gordon and best-selling author Graham McCann. Click/swipe the image to see more.
November 13, 2013
The Comedy Carpet and Cursing Stone have been featured in Lettering Large: The Art and Design of Monumental Typography by Steven Heller and Mirko Ilic. The book published by Monacelli Press in New York explores monumental typography in the environment with projects culled from throughout the world.
Paintings
Gordon's paintings are a lesser-known part of his practice but often inform his wider creative output. Sticking to a 10 × 15 cm postcard format these investigations incorporate found ephemera and typography, a less formal exploration of thoughts and ideas that overlap with his more well known public artworks.
An archive has begun to collate them here.
Trading Words Stage 2
Work nears completion on the production of the second stage of Trading Words for the London Dock development in Wapping, East London.
November 2022
A memorial plaque to renowned Sheffield Master Cutler Stan Shaw. Cast in iron with inlaid bronze knives the plaque will be installed outside Sheffield's Cutlers Hall.
Stan began his career as an apprentice at 14 years old making multi-bladed pocket knives with handles from materials such as mother of pearl and tortoiseshell. A master craftsman, Stan made knives entirely by hand after learning all of the distinct components of the profession, such as forging, grinding, and hafting, which were usually subdivided. Stan made knives for many notable figures including The Queen, some US presidents and Elvis Presley, his knives are now highly collectable.
More information here
September 2022
Down to Earth nears completion
Alex and his team in Australia have completed production on Gordon's latest commission 'Down to Earth'. The artwork to be sited at St Peters Interchange parkland in Sydney is a series of typographic brick spheres with texts from eminent Australian writers, poets and lyricists.
August 2022
November 2021
Shortlisted Artist – Agatha Christie Memorial Proposal
An initial proposal for an Agatha Christie memorial for Torbay. 'A Granite Gathering of Question Marks' is put forward as a celebration of the life and work of the Queen of Whodunit's.
A question mark is a punctuation mark that indicates an interrogation point in many languages. A whodunit or whodunnit – who (has) done it? – is a complex, plot-driven detective story in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus.
The question marks ????? are points to both her life and her work. The variety of ?'s in typography is a small wardrobe of possibilities and possible themes.
"Words Mademoiselle, are only the outer clothing of ideas."
Sept 21, 2019
A new park-square to commemorate the Capaci bombing has been formally opened in Albano Sant'Alessandro, Bergamo, Italy.
Dedicated to the Italian prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo and their police escorts who died in the Mafia assassination in Palermo on May 23rd, 1992. The memorial has been created in collaboration with De8 architetti studio, Why Not Associates and the landscape architect Laura Gatti.
May 2019
Gordon has been commissioned by Cultural Capital to create a series of artworks for a park space surrounding the new St Peters Interchange in western Sydney.
The interchange, described as one of Australia's largest infrastructure projects, is aimed at linking Sydney’s existing motorway network and alleviating the cities congestion nightmare.
The interchange will reclaim a former clay pit, brickworks and landfill site, with a predominately underground motorway scheme. The material from the underground works will form a new hilly open space created for use by the local community.
May 16, 2018
Cast in iron this project builds on the original and much-loved Walk of Art created at YSP in 2002. The artwork will form the entrance to the new visitor centre that is due to open in 2019. As a fundraising initiative supporters can have their names immortalised in the path to be enjoyed by future generations.
Find out more here
February 25, 2017
"Radioactive waste can remain dangerous to humans for 100,000 years. Nations with nuclear power are building underground storage facilities to permanently house it, but how might they mark these sites for future generations…"
Gordon has presented a documentary for BBC Radio 4.
It will be broadcast on Thursday 2nd March at 11.30am
Listen to it here
February 22, 2017
Trading Words documents the creation on Gordon’s latest public artwork at London Dock, Wapping. An accompanying exhibition at Counter House runs until 30th April 2017.
Counter House
9 Arrival Square
London E1W 2AA
Open: Monday – Sunday 10.00 – 18.00
free Admission
October 9, 2014
The Comedy Carpet has won the much coveted International Society of Typographers award for 2014. Held every three years, the Award recognises significant typographic achievement and excellence.
June 15, 2014
The Comedy Carpet has a mention in an article featured on the Design Council’s website. Written by Wayne Hemingway it considers ‘generous’ design and why it doesn’t take ‘starchitects’ or big pots of money to create inspiring public places.
“Remarkable examples of beautiful and truly generous design are popping up all around the world. By generous, I mean places designed for people to use, enjoy and improve – at no cost and for no profit…”
On the Comedy Carpet…
“This is urban design and art in the landscape working together in a seamless and perfect fashion. It celebrates kitsch, history and modernity, and has something for all tastes.
Visitors love the Comedy Carpet and they cannot stop photographing it and talking about it. Just look it up on Twitter or flickr or Google images, it is staggering how many images you’ll see. Bingo – success.”
June 11, 2014
Type Spaces – Typography in Three Dimensional Spaces has been published by Basheer Graphic books in Singapore. It features various projects including The Comedy Carpet, Walk of Art and Pobl + Machines.
January 14, 2014
Gordon has taken part in Aesthetics City at Shanghai’s Power Station of Art. The theme of this years event was centred around advocating the use of design to realise more creative lives and the use of aesthetics to build an ideal city. Gordon gave a lecture on his recent projects and exhibited along side a group of internationally renowned artists and designers. Click or swipe the image to see more photos.
November 20, 2013
The Comedy Carpet, Blackpool: The Making of a World Class Monument to Comedy has been published by Booth-Clibborn. The 208 page book documents the making of the largest work of public art in Europe with an essay by Gordon and best-selling author Graham McCann. Click/swipe the image to see more.
November 13, 2013
The Comedy Carpet and Cursing Stone have been featured in Lettering Large: The Art and Design of Monumental Typography by Steven Heller and Mirko Ilic. The book published by Monacelli Press in New York explores monumental typography in the environment with projects culled from throughout the world.