Struggling actor who wandered UK writing poems on road maps now selling them at top art gallery

Gommie's works now sell for upwards of £1,800 at the London gallery where his work is showing (Picture: Gommie/Messums London)
Gommie’s works are on sale for up to £1,800 at the London gallery where his work is showing (Picture: Gommie/Messums London)

A struggling actor who took to walking around the countryside during one of the lowest ebbs in his life has become the surprise hit of the art world.

Ollie Gomm, or Gommie as he is known, opened his first exhibition at Messums in London’s Cork Street on Saturday night having spent the last year roaming around the British countryside.

The former drama student gave up a 10-year career as an actor and started to make his pictures – colourful works of acrylic paint, ink, mud, doodles and poems on ordnance survey maps – at one of the lowest points of his life two years ago.

Circumstances had conspired to leave him with no permanent address, no studio and only a tent to sleep in. With nowhere to call home and no resources to draw on, he felt compelled to start walking.

Having hitched a lift to Dover he began by walking to Whitstable, Clacton and King’s Lynn then headed north towards Newcastle and Liverpool, jotting down quotes from the conversations he had with people he met along the way and turning them into poems.

At the same time he embellished the Ordnance Survey maps he was using to navigate with poems and local sayings and got the people he met on his wanderings to help turn them into paintings.

Gommie's I Want To Fight Now, in acrylic, ink, mud and chalk on Ordnance Survey map
Gommie’s I Want To Fight Now, in acrylic, ink, mud and chalk on Ordnance Survey map. He writes as part of a caption to this image on his Instagram account: ‘Rebellion is justified when the establishment fails. The world has been failed by the establishment and now is the time to fight.’ (Picture: Gommie/Messums London)
Gommie poem drawn onto a wall while camping and walking around the UK
Gommie poem drawn onto a wall while camping and walking around the UK

Gommie, who has no formal visual arts training, kept up an upbeat dialogue on Instagram, but, warming to his venture he still had no money so he applied to the Arts Council for funding to continue it.

They turned him down so instead he turned to his Instagram followers which were rapidly growing in number who supported him through crowd funding and bought some of his works.

Then last October, he came back to London and put some works up for sale at the Saatchi Art Gallery’s Other Art Fair. He sold several works and won a prize for best newcomer.

Gommie, 34, now has more 17,000 followers including Game of Thrones star, Emilia Clarke, who came to the opening of his exhibition, where his works are on sale for up to £2,000 a piece.

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 08: Emilia Clarke and Ollie Gommie attend the Gommie exhibition at Messums London on February 8, 2020 in London, England. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images )
Game Of Thrones star Emilia Clarke is a fan of Gommie’s work and attended the opening of his exhibition at Messums London (Picture: Dave Benett/Getty)

‘Gommie’s work is incredibly exciting and dynamic,’ she said. ‘It changes as our climate does, both political and social. It is very sincere and authentic at a time when so much seems to be fake.’

Catherine Milner, who curated the show added: ‘Gommie is a breath of fresh air; his works engage with the public in a very direct way that is both touching and powerful.

‘They are testaments to the joys and tribulations of people from all walks of life – their insights, wisdom and often, suffering which they have shared with him and which he has turned into iconic works of colour and life.’

The exhibition runs until February 15th at Messums, 28 Cork St, London W1S 3NG. Find out more at messumslondon.com

MORE: Man turns chewing gum he finds on the street into intricate works of art



source https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/12/struggling-actor-wandered-uk-writing-poems-road-maps-now-selling-top-art-gallery-12223484/
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