New exhibition to celebrate PR artists

PRs are used to being creative. Whether it’s hatching hare-brained ideas for a hard-to-sell campaign or jazzing up a yawnsome press release with a few colourful adjectives, imagination and lateral thinking are an essential part of every self-respecting PR’s skillset. 

Some PRs, however, want a canvas that’s more creative than working on their client’s account. Which is why many of them are letting their inner Warhols, Dalis and Emins run free by lending their brushworks to a new art exhibition. 

The Art of PR takes place at London’s Coningsby Gallery from 18-23 November. The exhibition is the first to showcase the artworks of artists working in the UK PR and comms industry. It’s been organised by Boldspace senior creative (and Rolleiflex camera enthusiast) Ade Lee who says the show’s aim is to support “the Picassos of publicity and the Michelangelos in media relations.”

Brush strokes

The PR industry is probably unaware it has such talent lurking in its ranks as Tonye Ekine, a former corporate comms executive (he worked at MikeWorldWide) who left the publicity world to become a full-time artist and has since become a huge success, becoming a Venice Biennale Fellow.  

Alongside Ekine’s oil paintings (which explore the concept of identity through masks) will be the creations of Stella Tooth, a former senior PR at BBC and Sky News, who is now a portrait painter (and can often be seen working at Half Moon Putney, where she’s resident artist). 

The Coningsby Gallery will also be showing the works of David Emmanuel Noel, a CIPR member, who previously managed UK government campaigns, but has exhibited at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Kennedy Center in Washington DC as an artist.  

The exhibition also features works by current comms professionals. These include Nadia Padayachy (marketing manager, Grayling) whose acrylic paintings explore the “raw unfiltered experiences of motherhood”), Justine Bower (communications director, Global) and Alexandra Heybourne (founding mum at PR Mums and a Greater London CIPR Committee board member).  

Other emerging artists from PR who are represented include Ruby Quince (creative director, Burson), Simon Moore (who has worked at Cake, Mischief, Havas and Porter Novelli), Francesca Hales (account executive, Clarion Communications) and Emily Rose Halladay (creative, Stellar).

On the day

Should visitors want their likeness painted, artist and PR Joe Thomas (Clarion Communications) will be available to sketch live portraits in the gallery. 

The Art of PR is being held partly because the PR industry rarely gets recognition for its creative prowess (unlike their relatives working in advertising). 

“A showcase for artists in the PR sector is long overdue,” says Lee. “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 takes place at The Coningsby Gallery, 30 Tottenham Street, Fitzrovia London, 18 – 23 November 2024. Artworks will be available for sale. A private view event will take place Tuesday 19 November. 

Christian Koch is an award-winning journalist, editor, content strategist and brand consultant.

The CIPR runs a course for writing for impact and creativity.