New Exhibition ‘The Art of PR’ to Platform Artists Working in UK Public Relations

Above image credit: Nadia Padayachy

The first exhibition to showcase artists from the UK public relations (PR) industry, ‘The Art of PR’, will open to the public for a week in London this November.

The exhibition, taking place at The Coningsby Gallery in the heart of Fitzrovia, London, features works from PRs who have launched successful art careers including Tonye Ekine,  ROSL 2024 Rising Star and Venice Biennale Fellow, and Stella Tooth, a professional portraitist specialising in musicians. It also presents emerging artists from within the PR industry including Nadia Padayachy, Simon Moore, Joe Thomas, Ruby Quince, Emily Rose Halladay, Justine Bower, Francesca Hales, Alexandra Heybourne and Ade Lee.

This diverse and vibrant exhibition, open to the public and free to view, will show a collection of original contemporary works in various media including oils, watercolours, pencil, digital, print design and photography. The exhibition will also feature live portrait drawings in the gallery by artist and PR Joe Thomas.

Whilst the advertising industry has a long-established association with art and artists, its younger sibling, PR & Communications, despite its roots in creativity, has until now never celebrated its artists. Organisers hope the exhibition will become an annual event in arts and marketing calendars.

Above image credit: Stella Tooth

Exhibition organiser and Boldspace senior creative Ade Lee said, “A showcase for artists in the PR sector is long overdue. Artists often have day jobs, and this exhibition gathers some of the incredibly talented, dedicated and inspiring artists from the world of PR. The Art of PR will provide a platform for the Picassos of publicity and the Michelangelos in media relations for the first time.”

Coningsby Gallery owner Andrew Coningsby said, “This gallery represents some of the most original illustrators and animators working in the communication arts fields. As such I’m particularly delighted to be helping Ade and the artists he is promoting with his innovative enterprise.”

The exhibition has been organised by Ade Lee and supported by brand and communications agency Boldspace.

The free exhibition is open to the public between 18th and 23rd November 2024 at The Coningsby Gallery, 30 Tottenham Street, London. Artworks will be available for sale. A Private View event will take place Tuesday 19th November 5.30pm – 9pm.

Exhibitors in The Art of PR 2024 include:

Tonye Ekine, a former corporate comms executive and MikeWorldWide staffer, graduated in Fine Art from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria and also gained an MA in Fine Art (drawing) from Camberwell Art College. Named an ROSL Rising Star, he has exhibited at several shows and is now a full-time artist. Tonye’s oil paintings explore the concept of identity through masks, shedding light on the way we interact and hide our true intentions behind masks in our everyday lives.

Stella Tooth, a former senior PR at Sky News and BBC News, is a London-based portrait artist with over 10 years’ experience in traditional oil painting. Stella studied at The Heatherley School of Fine Art in Chelsea, undertakes private commissions including for the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and is resident artist at the Half Moon Putney.

Nadia Padayachy has worked with PR firms for 13 years and is marketing manager at PR firm Grayling. A quarterfinalist in Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist of the Year 2024, Nadia has previously exhibited in the Rising Tides Exhibition at The Gallery at the Playroom in Archway, London, and contributed to the NABS Art Auction, supporting mental health for professionals in marketing, media and advertising. Nadia’s acrylic paintings delve into the raw, unfiltered experiences of motherhood, capturing the authentic beauty of everyday life.

Joe Thomas has worked as an award-winning creative and corporate comms leader in agency and in-house environments for brands including Virgin Media, Google, itsu and Aldi. Alongside leading Creative Direction for Clarion Communications, Joe advises a number of brands, organisations and PR agencies. Joe will be exhibiting his latest studio work inspired by a love of cartography which explore perceptions of psychological and geographic place as well as hosting a series of live portraiture sittings throughout the exhibition.

Justine Bower’s career includes over 20 years in broadcast publicity at Channel 4, CNN, Sky News, UKTV, a BBC Studios company, and she is currently communications director at media giant Global. Having previously exhibited in New York, Justine creates digital portraits and abstract paintings with a signature vibrant colour base.

Ruby Quince is a creative director at Burson, the PR agency created by the union of Hill & Knowlton and Burson Coln & Wolfe in 2024. Ruby’s work is formed of collections of similar image types that emerge from cyclical habits and hobbies, created using Procreate and an iPad.

Simon Moore has held various creative director roles including at Cake, Mischief, Havas and Porter Novelli and freelances for various agencies. Simon studied Fine Art in Newcastle upon Tyne and has exhibited his work at various times including participation in the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery.

Francesca Hales is an account executive at Clarion Communications. Having studied Art at university, she specialises in print design and has since been named in Artfinder’s top 20 UK/US artists. Francesca creates ‘organically articulated’ travel prints using Adobe Illustrator.

Emily Rose Halladay is a creative at entertainment agency Stellar. Emily studied advertising at Central Saint Martins and paints impasto oil landscapes and abstract artworks.

Alexandra Heybourne has spent over 20 years working for media companies in-house and at agencies, is presently a director at a major agency, alongside being a founding mum for PR Mums and on the board of the Greater London CIPR committee. She is a specialist in entertainment, media and arts PR and has worked with some of the world’s most recognised photographers. Her photography passion started as a teenager with her going on to study photography at school. Post university she was a photo-journalist for a Birmingham ezine, progressing to a freelance editorial photographer before entering the world of PR when her pictures became a hobby. During her career she has photographed a range of faces from football legend Geoff Hirst for Sheengate Publishing to Alan Davey, former controller of Radio 3, for the Guardian. As a hobbyist her photos explore the art of the every day, from brutalist buildings looked at from a different perspective to human connection observed from the crowd. For this exhibition she is teaming up with Teddington Photographic for the print work.

Ade Lee has worked at various PR agencies, is a former director of publicity at Sky, and senior creative at Boldspace. A film photographer who studied darkroom techniques at Greenwich Community College, Ade works exclusively with vintage Rolleiflex cameras and black and white film, developing and printing in his darkroom in Charlton, London.

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