Toby Mott

• Name — Toby Mott • Born — 12 January 1964 • Birthplace — London, England • Occupation — * Artist • designer • collector • Education — Westminster Kingsway College • Field — * Visual art • fashion design • punk archiving

Toby Mott was born in London, son of academic Jim Mott and social worker Pam. He later studied art at Westminster Kingsway College where Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols was an alumnus. Mott was a founder member of the ASA (Anarchist Street Army, a late 1970s organisation that caused disturbances in the Pimlico area of London). Mott lived at the Carburton Street squats in Fitzrovia during the early 1980s, sharing the space with Boy George, Marilyn, Cerith Wyn Evans, Fiona Russell-Powell, and Mark Lebon. He appeared in several Derek Jarman films from this era, including The Angelic Conversation and also appearing in Gilbert & George's "Exister" pieces from 1984, currently in the Tate Collection. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he was based in New York and Los Angeles working part-time as a bicycle messenger and as an art director for MTV making music videos for various groups, among them Public Enemy, A Tribe called Quest and The Rolling Stones. In 1989, Mott designed album cover graphics for groups such as Information Society and De La Soul, most notably their debut album 3 Feet High and Rising.

The Anarchist Street Army (ASA) was a loose collective of young punks and anarchists from several inner city London Schools including Pimlico Comprehensive, London Nautical School, and Camden School for Girls, who congregated around an independent record shop on Wilton Road called Recordsville and attended Crass concerts. Their motives as an organisation were varied, but had a general ethos of bringing anarchy and chaos to the London streets, such as crashing Capital Radio's Nicky Horne show in an attempt to save the Roxy, and were a forerunner to later organisations with similar attitudes such as Class War, The Wombles, and protest tactics like Black Bloc. The ASA's motto and anthem was 'Running Riot', a punk rock song by the band Cock Sparrer.

• Illustration — "All Coppers Are Bastards" painting from Mott's 2011 gallery based on the 2011 England riots. Mott co-founded the art group Grey Organisation. In January 1985, they staged an act of "art terrorism" by secretly placing one of their paintings in London's International Contemporary Arts Fair. A year later, they threw grey paint on gallery windows along Cork Street, London's art district hub. Members were arrested and temporarily barred from central London, prompting a move to New York City, where they showed work at the Civilian Warfare Gallery in the East Village. After GO ended in 1991, Mott worked independently, exhibiting at White Columns in New York, the Thomas Soloman Garage in Los Angeles, and Interim Art in London. The Maureen Paley gallery represented him for years. In September 2011, Mott produced a series of paintings inspired by the 2011 England riots, the resulting exhibition 'Unrest' was exhibited at Vegas Gallery, London. Many of the paintings in the exhibition were brandished with the slogan 'All Coppers Are Bastards' in gold leaf a reference to the legendary punk/political slogan. • Illustration — De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising album artwork, Giclée print Mott said of this exhibition "I was going to call the exhibition, 'I'll keep looting until I get caught'— a quote from a looter but which could equally apply to a banker, [T]hose at the bottom are taking their lead from those at the top; although the rioters act in a cruder way, it is essentially the same thing." In October 2011, Knightsbridge gallery New Contemporary presented a solo exhibition of Mott's paintings, titled 'This Means Everything'. "The show is comprised of collection of new paintings addressing our culture's present preoccupation with fame and success versus the historical background of nihilism and anarchy as epitomised by the punk movement." In 2013, Toby Mott exhibited a print edition of the original album artwork for De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising, displayed alongside memorabilia such as Mott's original sketch, his gold disc, and other items from his private collection. Mott wrote an essay meant to accompany the exhibition in which he described the creation of the 1989 album art. He was commissioned to design the album cover by Tommy Boy Records and invited De La Soul to his New York loft. Atop a stepladder, he took the now-iconic black and white photograph of the three and added the dayglo "daisy-age" art in post-production.

New York's Andrew Roth Gallery hosted another part of Mott's collection, "Crass, selections from The Mott Collection", in February 2011. The exhibition of objects and artefacts centred on the anarchic, post-punk culture of the British band Crass included the band's LPs, EPs, and a full collection of the band's zine, Inter-National Anthem.

To celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, the Mott Collection exhibited a collection of sixty 7" punk singles, including records by The Clash, Ian Dury, The Cortinas, and the Buzzcocks, among others. The exhibition was accompanied by a publication of the same name reproducing various groups' cover artwork, including the iconic "God Save the Queen" by the Sex Pistols. In an interview with Peter Aspden in the Financial Times, Mott discusses how the Queen became an icon of the punk movement after the Sex Pistols defaced Cecil Beaton's portrait of her with a safety pin. "I was playing some of the records yesterday," said Mott. "They are amazing. They are so musical. They are like pop. I can't believe my parents said they were nothing but noise. Really, it is something you would want your own kids to be doing, it was so creative, instead of all this consumer stuff and video games. Punk was portrayed as this negative thing but, in fact, it was a high point and a lasting part of British culture. And that is why we should be celebrating it. Punk marked the end of the postwar period. It gave birth to individualism and then the Thatcher era that followed."

In 2013, Mott curated an exhibition called "Where Have All The Bootboys Gone? Skinhead Style and Graphic Subculture." The exhibition was held at the London College of Communication. It was said to be an exploration of the Skinhead subculture, its ties to the punk movement and Oi!, and the aesthetics and politics therein. Mott was criticized for opening the exhibit during Black History Month. Still, he defended his position, saying, "I don't understand the objection. I thought everyone loves skinheads. They are as British as chicken korma." In March 2014, Mott participated in London's Jewish Book Week. He spoke on a panel on the Jewish roots of punk alongside Geoff Travis, Daniel Miller, Charles Shaar Murray, and Vivien Goldman.

Mott launched a counter-culture book fair called Cultural Traffic. It launched at Truman's Brewery in Shoreditch in 2016. The fair showcases affordable art that is engaged in current social and political issues. The debut collection showcased works from contributors such as Angel Rose, Skin Deep, William Ling Fine Art, and The Photocopy Club.

Toby Pimlico is a fashion label based on paintings by Toby Mott. Mott began making paintings based on detention school 'lines' such as "I Will Try Harder"; these were then transferred onto T-shirts, transforming them into a recognisable design motif. He came up with the brand name, Toby Pimlico, and an initial six designs, including "I Must Not Chase the Boys" and "I Have Nothing To Wear". The T-shirts began to have a cult following after being worn by Kate Moss, the actress Sienna Miller, Geri Halliwell from The Spice Girls and It Girl Tara Palmer-Tomkinson. The label also received praise from the Prince of Wales. Other slogans are used to promote social consciousness, such as the Marie Curie-inspired 'love you to death.' The label was launched at London Fashion Week in 1998. The Brand now includes a range of tea towels, maternity wear and knickers. Mott responded to his own success and transition from Punk to artist-businessman by calling himself a 'Gold Card Anarchist' In 2014, Mott launched the website TobyShop.com to promote the brand. He released a line of vintage slogan T-shirts for the Toby Shop. The design is similar to T-shirts he first created in 1999, but with a modern twist. The line of shirts features slogans like "Show Me The Moet" and "Saturday Girl."

Mott divorced celebrity hairdresser Louise Galvin in 2008 after one year of marriage, as reported in the Evening Standard. Mott met Galvin through a mutual friend; she was already several months pregnant when they married. "The marriage was never going to work, I discovered Louise had matching Louis Vuitton luggage" says Mott. Their daughter was born in 2007.