POP e PerfectPitch Sculptor Guy Portelli garnered an £80,000 investment when he entered TV’s Dragons’ Den looking for potential backers. Now his Pop Icon collection is about to hit the wider world. Words: Nick Dines

uy Portelli has achieved great time to launch a business when we’ve interest – art and music – crossed each what many people have now seen the bottom. I looked at the quality other. “Music is such a powerful form of dreamed of but failed to do: of his work and thought Guy could be the communication,” he says. “It moves you in a grab the attention and next Damien Hirst. If he is, I want to be in. way that’s very hard for art to do. I was support of the entrepreneurs For me it was something with real intrigue, trying to capture what it was in music that Gin TV’s Dragons’ Den. Portelli secured an which captured my imagination.” generated this passion.” £80,000 investment from businessmen In 1985 he realised a collection of pop Peter Jones, James Caan and Theo Paphitis Musical passion icons was a project that could gain him in Dragons’ Den last September in exchange The collection is a unique concept of art public recognition. He and his team have for 25 per cent equity in his sculptures of through six decades dedicated the past pop music celebrities. with a variety of 18 year preparing for Although he had originally asked for sculptures. Portelli’s “I thought Guy could be the huge show at the £70,000, Portelli rejected a £90,000 offer work has always the next Damien Hirst. Mall Galleries in from entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne in proved immensely June, an achievement favour of benefi tting from the backing and popular due to If he is, I want to be in” very few artists fulfi l contacts of the three other ‘Dragons’. its quality and in their lifetime. Portelli’s success proved that despite a originality, as he uses a wide range of fi ne It’s the visual imagery around these icons recession, should an opportunity prove materials, from traditional bronze to acrylic that Portelli fi nds fascinating. Whether it be alluring enough, art remains an attractive and aluminium. In a surreal scenario, the Mafi a culture surrounding Sinatra, the proposition for investment. where else have music legends such as Frank fl ower power and anti-war movement Peter Jones emphasises the importance of Sinatra, John Lennon, The Who and associated with the Hendrix era or the w art in the current economic climate. “We co-existed in one room? know factually that non-necessity luxury This idea germinated when, at 17, he ABOVE, FROM LEFT Theo Paphitis, Peter Jones, items are decreasing in value, so what a created a piece in which two points of James Caan and Guy Portelli in front of Mod Rock

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CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT In the foundry; Bob Marley, bronze, 60x60x65cm; Guy working on Mod Rock; Post Punk (Sex Pistols), aluminium, bronze and glass, 240x66x114cm; Hey Joe (), bronze, aluminium and mosaic, 130x180cm

dysfunctional champagne lifestyle of Amy years because the infrastructure that I’d there’s not a lot of art in the market place for Winehouse – with each decade a unique created would have walked away from me. them. The male is an obsessive collector.” fascination is discovered. But you may also fi nd you get yourself tied He puts his success with the Dragons “I love all of them because of their in with a team that you’re not compatible down to appearing confi dent and passionate individuality. I think the bronze John Lee with, so all those things were a risk; losing about the project. “I wasn’t going in from a Hooker is a classic piece, as is the Grace your control of the ship you’ve steered for point of weakness; I was going in from a Jones in acrylic – but then we’re always all these years. point of strength. I’m already out there, excited by any new work.” “I wasn’t only there for the money: the already exhibiting, already making, already The collection is sure to spark debate, money was a major part, but I wasn’t going selling, I’m not going in with a begging with a number of obvious omissions. “I’m to take it any cost. The project costs a lot bowl. I think they sensed that I wasn’t avoiding people like and more than £70,000 but I knew the Dragons desperate and vulnerable.” Elvis Presley because they’ve become didn’t like people going in showing a lack of This was an aspect picked-up on by Peter caricatures and there’s very little you can do commitment. I could have easily done with Jones. “It was very clear that Guy was non- with them once they’ve got to that level.” £120,000 on this project, so the fact I was negotiable. I think that made me feel this prepared to subsidise it myself, asking for guy knows exactly what he wants.” Calculated pitch half that amount, reassured them that I had The encounter in the Den could have confi dence in it.” Developing your style worked both ways. “The strategy going into Portelli has geared the collection towards Portelli is passionate about encouraging art the Dragons’ Den was very well calculated. a particular audience. “My audience is lovers to support future generations of If I had gone in and got totally rejected it really 30- to 50-year-old men who are artists. “I would like people to start to would have set my career back 20 or 30 fascinated by music and collecting, and realise that you invest in someone from an

14 Artists & Illustrators prof ile|GUY PORTELLI PHOTOS: GUY PORTELLI, JAMES GILLHAM AND BRAD LUCAS early age and support them, follow their want to earn money from it, you have no ABOVE CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT career, like them as a person, like their option but to adopt a formulaic perspective.” Guy with Rocking Chair Blues (John Lee Hooker), work. That is a fascinating marriage and a Portelli’s philosophy and pitch certainly bronze, lifesize; Grace Jones, acrylic, lifesize, and constructive way of enriching our culture. convinced investor Theo Paphitis, who is in prototype; Guy working on Rocking Chair Blues. Every time you’re buying a piece of work no doubt that his investment is sound. from an artist you’re sponsoring that artist “There are so many great pieces, I thought South African-born Guy Portelli moved to maintain that cycle of creativity.” that maybe if we gave Guy some money, we to in 1969 and studied Interior Instead of producing prolifi cally, he does could keep the pieces in exchange!” Design and 3D Design at Medway not release his work unless he feels it can sell James Caan echoes this sentiment. “The College of Art. He then worked as a at a reasonable price. “My advice would be, Jimi Hendrix is a fabulous piece. We all felt sculptor in the special effects department produce a few good pieces of real good we would love to own Guy’s work. I was at the BBC before moving into quality and spend time on thinking about sitting there thinking it would be an contemporary sculpture. Many of his how you can market what you do. Don’t amazing investment, but that I would also pieces are displayed in public, corporate produce a lot of work because people don’t love to have any one of those pieces in and private collections. He was elected remember 50 paintings, they remember one my own home.” as a council member to the Royal Society good painting. There’s a point where you Portelli envisages taking his Pop Icons to of British Sculptors in 2000. have to embrace that you’re running a another UK base, such as Manchester or Heart-throb: The Golden Age of the Pop business. When I make a sculpture I think Edinburgh, and also hopes to capture the Icon will be at The Mall Galleries, ‘How can I get this in front of people and potentially huge international audience. , 25 June – 3 July. www.portelli- generate public interest without selling my The question is, with the Dragons involved, sculptor.co.uk; www.mallgalleries.org.uk soul at the same time?’ It’s tough, but if you will there be any left for others to buy? A&I

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