Biography
Johnny Spencer (b. UK 1949-d. Kent, UK 2021) was an artist, writer, collector, provocateur and musicologist. He studied at Goldsmiths College and Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts. During the 1990s Spencer became associated with the Posterstudio project on Charing Cross Road, London, He contributed alongside Anthony Davies, Merlin Carpenter, Dan Mitchell, Nils Norman, Jeremy Glogan and Jakob Jakobsen. He later formed with Jakobson and Henriette Heise, the Copenhagen Free University, 2001–07, and RFH Club, 2000–02. The Contemporary Art Society acquired The Poor, The Golden Age of the Villain, Coffee Tables, How the Brain Works and The Mouflom (a men’s hairstyle more commonly known as the ‘ape drape’)(1997-8), which are a series of text-and image works that explain randomly picked subjects raising questions of our cultural shift into the information age, which they donated to Mead, University of Warwick Art Collection. Spencer was sceptical of the art world, being most prolific on his own website: johnnyspencer.info even though Charles Saatchi collected his work and he was represented by the gallerist Anthony Wilkinson. He also participated in The Golden Age at the ICA (1999), the touring British Art Show 5 (2000) and Century City, Tate Modern (2001).
