Few would have spotted the creative storm in the horizon when Stanley Donwood - the creative alter ego of Dan Rickwood - and Thom Yorke met on the first day at the studies of Fine Art and English Literature at Exeter University in ‘88. Including the two young men. Both opinionated and not afraid to voice it, it seemed that the companions were either destined to join some sort of political revolution against Thatcher’s establishment, or cultivating the raging activist fire inside their hearts and express it through alternative routes. Music and art won, and slowly the stones were laid, forming a lifelong friendship and collaboration between the two.

Yorke’s rapid success with Radiohead in the early nineties created an opportunity to work together, and in ’94 Donwood was invited to produce the cover art for the single ‘My Iron Lung’. It wasn’t an invitation in a formal sense. Considering the men’s history of trespassing into the graphics design building at the university - to gain access to “state-of-the art” technology in their quest to explore digital imagery - it was closer to a well-articulated brief between two activists over a couple of beers at the student pub. An easy-going approach that undeniably informed the final artwork. Donwood recalls that he would start with a draft and show it to Yorke, who would add to it, then return it to Donwood. This repeat work-process could go on for shorter or longer time, until they both came to the conclusion that they had reached the final expression. Over the years, Donwood’s creations have continued to visually define Radiohead, covering hit records such as ‘The Bends’(1995), ‘OK Computer’(1997), ‘Kid A’(2000), ‘Amnesiac’(2001) and ‘Hail To The Thief’(2003).

To define Donwood’s practice as simple as the artist behind the visuals for a world-famous rock band would be inadequate. Too young for the punk-era and missing out on the student sit-ins and up-risings of ’68, Donwood was a child of the tumultuous years and grew up in its aftermath; a politically charged period filled with systemic change. Mines were shut down in parts of Britain already deprived, and unions clipped from their powers, leading to ever growing social injustice in too many rural areas around the country. Thatcher’s government may have brought in needed change, but the political learning stayed with Donwood and through his work he continues to question society today. Like the generation before him led by Malcolm McLaren, Jamie Reid and Tony Moon, once an activist, it stays close to the heart.

The artist’s works reaches out and touches various unconnected topics, thoughts and ideas. In a series of maps from 2003, which include the prominent ‘Pacific Coast’, he uses a basic palette of seven colours to comment on the tension in the middle east, completing one work titled ‘Baghdad’ just before the attack on the city known somewhat disingenuously as ‘shock and awe’. Closer to home, Donwood comments on the history of the print trade in ‘Fleet Street Apocalypse’; showing buildings in flames in the infamous street in East Central London whilst a few desperate survivors attempt to escape a flood that sweeps the street.

Donwood’s preparations for Radiohead’s fourth album, ‘Kid A’, became an extensive body of works. A visual journey that matched the dystopian nature of the music. The works for this album included paintings and drawings that made up a series of bleak, post-apocalyptic mountainous landscapes, inspired by artists such as Casper David Friedrich and Hieronymus Bosch, as well as war imagery, especially from the Kosovo War of 1998-1999 which Donwood was particularly upset by, at one point saying it “felt like it was happening on my street”. And the more they looked, the conclusion became clearer. Worrying statistics from the Worldwatch Institute, a globally focussed environmental research organisation, evidenced the icecaps melting and weather patterns changing, increasingly bringing Donwood and Yorke into an obsession with the fact that the World was in a sad state.

Following the release of ‘Kid A’, Donwood didn’t rest on the success of the contribution and new projects captured his attention until one day in 2005 as he found himself back in the archives, rediscovering the imagery and all the details of the original works. The intriguing narratives of the works draw the viewer in, eagerly wanting to know more about what’s happening in these dark yet strangely calming landscapes, where in particular four scenes stood out. In Realistic and Avert, Donwood saw the snowy mountains as some sort of cataclysmic power existing in the landscape, and the red swimming pool in Avert was inspired by the 1998 graphic novel ‘Brought to Light’ by Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz, illustrating the number of people killed by state terrorism measured in fifty gallon swimming pools filled with blood. An image that reportedly haunted Donwood during the recording of the album.

Contrasting the two painterly arctic landscapes in Avert and Realistic, the settings in Borealis and Teeth are depicting dry, desert-like scenes with borrowed photographs and hand drawn elements. An X-ray of his own foot placed behind an arid and desolate North American continent substantiate the composition in Teeth; and in Borealis, a tall and imposing alien-like robotic character walks a hand-scribbled terrain parked with abandoned cars, cut-down trees and anonymous residential high-risers.

The connecting factor in the four works is the pair of children in the foreground that look on, their backs to the viewer as they see what the viewers see, reiterating the sense that these could be real scenes of the future likely to be experienced by the children of today during their lifetime.

An owner of a gallery, a record label, a publisher of several books and a successful artist are a few of the accomplishments achieved by Stanley Donwood over four decades; earning him a number of accolades, including the Grammy for the creative work for the special edition of ‘Amnesiac’ by Radiohead in 2001. Always focusing on what are the important matters of the day, Donwood continues to grow the extensive list of exhibitions on his resume, with his works regularly exhibited internationally.

Avert, Borealis, Realistic and Teeth are based on the original drawings for the album ‘Kid A’, and presented by Donwood in a larger format to make it possible to unveil the details. First shown at ‘Cover Up’ - an Eyestorm exhibition in April of 2007 highlighting the link between art and music - the series were included amongst works by Simon Taylor, Jamie Reid, Reggie Pedro, Jason Kedgley and other artists. The four print editions of 50 each were printed in archival inks and released in an exclusive collaboration between Stanley Donwood and Eyestorm. Each print is signed and numbered on front; printer’s proof are not signed and numbered.

To view the print editions in further detail and to find more information about available works by Stanley Donwood, visit the artist’s page here.