New Art Rock Trio To Debut At Isle Of Wight Festival

A trio of new artworks created by pop artist Morgan Howell FRSA to mark three legendary Isle Of Wight Festival performances are to be unveiled at this year’s event.

The artist has produced two spectacular new silkscreen editions depicting David Bowie’s Rebel Rebel and The Rolling Stones single Brown Sugar.

Bowie opened his memorable set - his last ever on UK soil - with the song at the festival in 2004 while The Stones performed their track on the Isle Of Wight three years later.

Singer Mick Jagger also duetted with Amy Winehouse during his band’s headline performance with Amy also playing a solo set that year, which included her classic Back To Black.

Morgan’s original painting of that song will also be shown to the public for the first time with a total of 20 pieces at the festival exhibition from June 20-23 2024.

The artwork, which contains a real piece of giant white vinyl in a distressed black canvas sleeve, was previously only seen privately at the recent global premiere of Amy’s biopic of the same name.

There it was admired by Amy’s father Mitch, the film’s director Sam Taylor-Johnson and soundtrack composers Nick Cave and Bad Seed Warren Ellis.

The silkscreens feature up to twelve colours with a satin varnish and measure one metre square.

They were printed by world-leading printmakers and publishers Coriander Studio, who work with the Godfather of Pop Art Sir Peter Blake and Damien Hirst.

Morgan decided to release the silkscreens due to public demand for certain of his sold out original supersize paintings and artist’s editions.

The Stones and Bowie artworks are the first in a series of releases marking classic singles.

Both are printed on lush Saunders Waterford 425gsm paper but production numbers are strictly capped at fifty. Morgan personally oversaw production of the silkscreens at Coriander Studio’s famous HQ in South West London.

He says:

“This is my third consecutive exhibition at the Isle Of Wight Festival and I wanted to mark it by producing works depicting three artists who played some of the most memorable shows here.

“Amy, The Stones and Bowie are three of my favourite performers so it seemed apt to bring them to the island once more.

"My supersize paintings and editions of songs like Rebel Rebel and Brown Sugar sold out long ago and I wanted to make such titles available to more people as there was such demand.

“This is also the first time fans outside of the world film premiere will be able to see Back To Black up close. I’d like to thank the festival’s mastermind John Giddings for asking me to the island once again.”

Giddings picked out The Stones and Bowie headline sets as two of his favourites, remarking:

“That was David’s last ever show in the UK – sad, but true. I remember introducing him to Tim Burgess of The Charlatans and Bowie turned round to me and said, ‘John, when did I play here last?’ I said, ‘You’ve never played here!’”

And talking about The Rolling Stones, the promoter added:

“I got the opportunity because Keith Richards had fallen out of a tree, which meant we had to reschedule some dates.

"I’d sold the festival out and I had chance to put the Stones on and I thought, ‘Sod it, if I get run over on Monday morning at least I’ve brought The Rolling Stones to the Isle Of Wight.’”