OPENING 16/06/12

PRESS RELEASE

ARTWORK

BIOGRAPHY

   

                




"He was unique, his own creation. Sebastian was fearless and a hero…he was the last king of Soho. With Sebastian's passing something else precious has gone from the heart of London.
Marc Almond – award-winning musician, singer of Soft Cell

“He was an artist, writer, Soho peacock and much more – yet perhaps Horsley's defining obsession and achievement was himself.”
Sebastian Horsley’s obituary, The Guardian



Sebastian Horsley was born in Hull in 1962 to an alcoholic mother and a millionaire father. He was so appalled that he couldn’t talk for two years. Following a tumultuous upbringing and a brief affair with a mob-boss, Sebastian became a permanent fixture of the Soho scene; his infamy only paralleled by the facetious plaque upon his front door that proclaimed: ‘There are no prostitutes at this address’.

Quite to the contrary, Sebastian once estimated, conservatively, to have slept with around 1000 prostitutes. He extolled the virtues of paid sex in a regular column for The Erotic Review (1998-2004), contributed liberally to The Decadent Handbook (2006) and The Hedonist’s Guide To Life (2009) and was triumphantly denied entry into America on the grounds of ‘moral turpitude’. He was a famed artist, writer, drug addict, pimp and whore. Upon hearing, in 2009, that his memoirs were to be adapted for the stage, a horrified Sebastian asked ‘why would I go to the theatre to see rape, sodomy, alcoholism and drug addiction? I can get all of that at home’. His death came, quite suddenly, one year ago. His parting note? ‘I have decided to stop living on account of the cost’.

This show is a tribute to Sebastian’s life and legacy. It is a rare opportunity to see (and perhaps purloin) his most cherished trinkets, magnificently tailored suits and infamous top hats. Also on display will be relics of his notorious crucifixion, a screening by the artist Sarah Lucas and paintings from Sebastian’s 1999 show, ‘The Flowers of Evil’. Be dressed divinely or indecently.

‘There comes a time in every person’s life when they realize they adore me.

Yours has come.’