07 Oct Seven Artists Chosen from Paul O’Grady Commissions
Seven artists are chosen for Paul O’Grady Commissions
Seven Artists are Chosen for Paul O’Grady Commissions
The new works will feature in the major exhibition of archival material in Birkenhead
Seven artists will share a £12,000 fund to create new artworks commissioned as part of a major retrospective commission in Birkenhead, Wirral, this year celebrating Paul O’Grady.
You Gotta Get a Gimmick: The Paul O’Grady Story will open at Williamson Art Gallery on 11th December 2026, and run until late 2027. After an Open Call this summer, artists from Wirral, Liverpool City Region, the North West and wider UK have been selected.
The Open Call was divided into geographical areas for commissions. The artists selected are:
Wirral Commission: Sebastian Roberts, alongside Tom Stockley and Wirral Hive Youth Zone
Illustrator Sebastian Roberts, along with Tom Stockley and Wirral Hive Youth Zone, will create a zine exploring Paul O’Grady’s life and work. The project will be inspired by Paul’s lifelong commitment to activism, community care and children’s literature, while also featuring stories from young LGBTQ+ people in Birkenhead.
Sebastian Roberts is a North-West based, queer illustrator, specialising in live illustration, zine making, and artwork that is colourful, silly, and sometimes a little rude!
Born from his aphantasia, he has developed a practice creating colourful illustrations from his observations. This has included everything from visual minutes for the 42nd Street MCR and Afrocats, to alternative documentary drawings for The George’s House Trust and The People’s History Museum, to countless portraits at weddings, private parties, and markets – as well as a raunchy cabaret or two!
As a zine-maker and workshop facilitator, he’s created zines for Wigan Council, #BeeWell, and New Earth Theatre. He has also worked alongside Cheshire Council, the Whitworth Art Gallery, and the 42nd Street MCR to deliver zine workshops for a range of ages and abilities. As the Zine Lead at Comics Youth, he has edited their quarterly zines, created a bi-weekly Zine Collective for marginalised youth, and organised the Merseyside Zine Fair. All throughout, his practice aims to elevate and empower through self publishing, and the power of scrap paper and felt tip pens.
Tom Stockley is an artist and youth worker based on the Wirral. They lead LGBTQ+ projects at The Hive Youth Zone including Work It Out, a weekly group for young people. The members of this group advocate for LGBT+ young people in their local community, run stalls at local Pride events and collaborate with local organisations on creative and socially-engaged projects.
Liverpool City Region Commission and Artist In Residence: Ben Youdan
Ben Youdan will create two separate portraits that function as a single artwork: one of Paul and one of Lily. The main images celebrate Paul and Lily as icons within popular culture, while the background collage will reveal the private individuals behind their public personas in an intimate and evocative manner.
Ben Youdan is a professional Queer artist based in Liverpool, U.K. His work explores ideas of identity and sexuality.
In the last year he has exhibited work in The St Margaret’s Gallery in Norwich as part of Queerfest, had work in a group exhibition “FXLK PLAY” in the Long Hall at Plummer Park in Los Angeles, launched a new book called “UnSafe Space” at the Bishopsgate Institute in London, and a brand new solo exhibition in the basement of a fetish store in Blackpool called “Darkroom”. He has also shown work as part of the “Leather Endures” exhibition at studio kink in Sydney, Australia
In the past he has exhibited extensively in group shows in Berlin, London, Amsterdam and the United States. He has also had work featured in the Liverpool Biennial and for Homotopia arts festival. As well as two large solo exhibitions “FILTH” and “GLAMOUR”
Youdan was commissioned to make a portrait of Holly Johnson for a major exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool. He has previously exhibited a work at the Williamson Art Gallery as a gallery intervention, and two pieces of his work has been acquired for the permanent collection of the Museum of Liverpool. His work is in private collections around the world.
He was formerly an artist in residence at The Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles and his work was featured on Madonna’s “Rebel Heart” world tour.
North West Commission: Alison Friend
Alison Friend will paint a portrait of Buster. With a nod to Lily Savage the painting is a tribute to Buster, Paul’s little shadow and to Paul’s dedication to and compassion for rescue dogs.
Alison Friend is a British artist known for her whimsical, anthropomorphic animal portraits. A graduate of Nottingham Trent University, with a degree in Fine Art and Printmaking. As an accomplished children’s book illustrator, Alison has illustrated over twenty books to date for notable publishers, including Harper Collins, Nosy Crow, Hodder Children’s, Templar, Usbourne, Little Tiger Press, Alfred Knopf, and most recently, Artisan.
Friend’s oil paintings combine the timeless techniques of the Old Masters with a playful contemporary twist, capturing the human-like antics of cats and dogs. This distinctive style has attracted collectors worldwide with solo exhibitions in London, Los Angeles and New York. She has also shown as art fairs and group shows across the world including The London Art Fair, Frieze Seoul, Art Jakarta, British Art Fair, Context Miami, Manchester Art Fair, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, and Outsider Art Fair New York.
Alison splits her time between The Lake District and Manchester with her partner Jen.
UK Commission: Mark Wardel
Mark Wardel will make a portrait of Lily Savage.
Mark was born in Wallasey, Merseyide, and lives and works in London. He (sometimes using the pseudonym TradeMark) has been making his distinctive lgbtq+ orientated art since 1978 after hitting the London club/music/gay scene directly from art school on Merseyside.
He was originally inspired by David Bowie and fascinated by the Bowie-influenced, self created identities and gender experimentation adopted by clubkids, gays, outsiders etc. in order to function in their various subcultures his acrylic and oil paintings. His flyers and nightclub installations have been a major presence on the gay/straight/queer club scene internationally from the 1980s to the present day.
Attracting the attention of high profile clients and collectors including David Bowie/Isolar, Absolut Vodka and Defected Records, his work has been exhibited internationally in galleries and museums and resides in the public collections of The Liverpool Museum and V&A Storehouse East/David Bowie Archive.
Wardel’s work has and continues to evoke an alternate vision of timeless hedonism throughout turbulent times.
Ceramic Commission: Chris Turrell
Chris Turrell, will make a pair of Staffordshire style ceramic mantelpiece dogs. One will represent Lily Savage and the other, as Paul.
Chris Turrell’s work involves intertwining figuration, text and symbolism honouring queer identity and memory on organic stoneware sculptures. He builds vessels and abstract forms using coil and slab techniques and achieves richly textured surfaces through sgraffito, mono printing, relief decoration, stamped and hand-painted images, as well as a process of sanding down the built layers. He incorporates unconventional materials like watercolour, gold leaf inlay and beeswax that expand the expressive possibilities of the medium.
Chris has exhibited work in group exhibitions in London and abroad. In 2018, he was awarded a Selected Membership of the Craft Potters Association. In 2025, he was selected to make and show a new body of work at Collect Open at Somerset House. From that, Poppy for Derek was acquired by National Museums Liverpool for their permanent collections at the Walker Art Gallery. Three pieces were included in Cross Generational at Eric Firestone Gallery in West Palm Beach, USA. Chris lives and works in Liverpool.
Two artists will also share Micro Commissions. They are:
HRH Aphrodite I (Artist in Residence Micro Commission)
HRH Afrodite I, also known as Harry Smith, will create The Savage Beauties, an ode to Lillian Maeve Veronica Savage and her enduring legacy within Merseyside’s drag community. Through a series of six portraits, Lily’s Northern glamour and sartorial legacy will be deconstructed and reappropriated by contemporary drag artists from her home county.
HRH Aphrodite I is an award winning drag queen, artist, and historian. Her work focuses on viewing the present moment through a historical lens.
She is a multidisciplinary artist, spreading her work between the worlds of the heritage sector and LGBTQIA+ cabaret. She is keen to work in activating archives and collections through creative interventions, which she has done for a variety of national institutions including the Royal Museums Greenwich, The British Museum, Historic Royal Palaces, and the National Archives
https://www.instagram.com/hrhaphroditei/
Joni Brown
Joni Brown will create a textiles banner, with prose stitched and embroidered on to it. It will uncover lesser known local LGBTQIA+ stories from around Merseyside, drawing from archival collections and the tales of the area.
Joni Brown (she/they, b. 2003) moves amongst wildness as a cycle of repetition to connection to renewal. Examining the kitsch and theatrical aesthetics of queer identities, Brown’s work for the Paul O’Grady commission intertwines historical narratives and contemporary prose into visual textiles art.
Her practice draws from archival parafiction, fantastical feminist theories and the creation of interdimensional realities through disjointed abstract materials. Brown graduated from the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, in 2025, and is the co-founder of Unquiet Press.
https://www.instagram.com/joni.pb/
Each of the artist proposals created an artistic response that celebrates and preserves Paul’s legacy, life and contribution to British cultural life. While rooted in his importance to LGBTQIA+ history, the commissions may also explore his impact as a broadcaster, performer, author, campaigner for animal welfare, advocate for children and literacy, and champion of working-class voices. The commissioned artwork will join the Williamson Art Gallery’s permanent collection, exploring Paul’s lasting impact on British culture, LGBTQIA+ representation, animal welfare, children’s creativity and reading, broadcasting, performance and community life
With thanks to National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England
The Paul O’Grady Commissions are presented in association with Andre Portasio, Joan Marshrons, Williamson Art Gallery, Switchflicker, DuoVision and Wirral Council.
