Fauna And Foliage, Stone Soup, York, until April 15

11:56am Friday 12th February 2010

By Charles Hutchinson

Melanie Alexandrou and Jade Blood are collectively known as Happycat and together they have produced the new duo show at the Stone Soup creative agency in York.

Fauna And Foliage is the result of the latest link-up between Stone Soup, in Walmgate, and The ArtSpace gallery in Tower Street. “Every two months, Stone Soup approach us for suggestions of who to showcase at their offices,” says ArtSpace co-director Greg McGee.

“It’s a good way for them to flex their arty muscles and remind their clients that at their core they remain as focused on art as they are on graphic design. It maintains their initial vision, consolidates their brand, and the opening nights are invariably things of quirky fun.

“In the past we’ve had Nathan Chenery, Catherine Scriven, Richard Barnes and Anna Forrest there and now we have Happycat.”

In Fauna And Foliage, Melanie and Jade’s new works focus on getting back to nature and on animals domesticated and wild.

“The lo-fi, handmade aesthetic of our work is purposely so,” say Happycat. “It reflects the engagement with the process and how sometimes the inherent mistakes add to the essence of the work. We are all human after all.”

Melanie’s work explores a return to a more organic aesthetic, using craft-based materials and methods and more traditional disciplines such as printmaking and illustration.

“The simple celebration of all things feathered, furred and fronded reminds us of some the best things in life,” she says.

Jade collects the tacky, tasteless but loveable objects still to be found in a grandmother’s house and puts them to use in her artwork to question the popular perception of culture.

“These objects are an inspiration for my work and also become part of my work,” she says. “I would say I can’t really ‘do’ anything particularly well, but there is a trendy word for that: DIY!”

The ArtSpace is benefiting from its burgeoning programme of collaborations, according to Greg.

“Running alongside Stone Soup on this project makes perfect sense,” he says. “Tom Sharp at Stone Soup is hugely supportive of edgy art and has a good curator’s eye and these showcases are also a way for us to further champion artists who we think deserve more exposure.

“Both Melanie and Jade caught our attention a year ago with their Happycat ephemera; indeed I was honoured to choose Melanie as the winner of the Start For Art bursary with her degree show.”

Greg and co-director Ails McGee gave Melanie her own solo show at The ArtSpace last October. “It was a massive success in every way, so it was a no-brainer when Tom asked us who deserved Stone Soup’s walls for two months,” says Ails.

“Happycat has a real instinct for what it is to be a brand, but they also possess the secret that eludes most artists – they live and breathe their work, and so there’s a real unforced magic when you’re confronted with it.”