Jonny Hannah

“Jonny is a true original, a one-off. Born in the Land of Jimmy Shand he has now arrived, via Liverpool and the Royal College of Art, to the sound of seagulls and mermaids in Southampton. In reality Jonny inhabits another world, where hipsters finger-pop and shady deals are made in end of pier tattoo parlours. Jonny's Dark Town invades his work, the visual equivalent of Tom Waits, or Graham Green's wonderful creation, Piggy.  Jonny's fascination with faded Americana mirrors that of Lucinda Williams, whose sweet songs of sad girls, and echoes of Hank Williams and Guthrie's Dust Bowl Ballads all resonate with Jonny. Jonny too has dug deep into the unromantic corners of Englishness. Grimy parlours, fairground attractions, the strong man, the seafarer, all have been explored by Jonny in a myriad of prints, paintings, handmade books and painted objects.” Design for Today

Jonny Hannah grew up in Dunfermline & studied illustration Liverpool Art School & then the Royal College of Art. He has been a freelance illustrator ever since, happily residing in Southampton, & is represented by the Heart Agency in London & New York. As an obsessive fan of both popular & unpopular culture, & has been fortunate enough to be commissioned to draw, paint, & collage his heroes. From ‘Hot Jazz Special’ for Walker Books (2005), to exploring our folk hinterlands with the ‘Curious Customs’ stamps for the Royal Mail (2019). And anyone else who inspires him often end up in an exhibition of one kind or another. His biggest show to date was ‘Main Street’ at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2015, where he realized a set of pop-up shops from his imaginary ‘Darktown’; a pensinsula surrounded by the Sea of Possibilities, bringing much of his monograph ‘Greetings from Darktown’ (Merrell 2014) to life. Jonny is also a keen printmaker & runs the ‘Cakes & Ale Press’, a cottage industry publishing books, prints, posters, teatowels, badges & lovehearts. Mare Vivimus.