Baby Joker (241)

Baby Joker (241)Collected by celebrities including Sir Elton John, Sting and Boy George, Mark Sloper known as Illuminati Neon moves in the same circles as some of showbizs best known names Featuring punk inspired imagery emblazoned with neon, vintage memorabilia and song lyrics, his original artworks have commanded the attention of the art world. In 2019, he was showcased at the prestigious Saatchi Gallery for their START Art Fair, which features some of the best

Collected by celebrities including Sir Elton John, Sting and Boy George, Mark Sloper - known as Illuminati Neon - moves in the same circles as some of showbiz’s best-known names

Featuring punk-inspired imagery emblazoned with neon, vintage memorabilia and song lyrics, his original artworks have commanded the attention of the art world. In 2019, he was showcased at the prestigious Saatchi Gallery for their START Art Fair, which features some of the best emerging global talent.

Hand-painted in oils and acrylics at his studio in Shepherd’s Bush, London, his fluorescent creations are just as anarchic as their namesake. The handblown glass neon is formed using a centuries-old technique, echoing the exhilarating mixture of modern and classical that shaped the punk rock aesthetic.

Mark says: “Every piece tells a story about that transformative era: my experience of it, the people who made it and became my friends, and the honorary punks who personified its anarchy, chaos and rock ‘n’ roll long before the movement had a name.”

Find out more about Illuminati Neon here, or view his other artwork here.

About the neon lights

Electrically certified, the neon lights in this piece are safe and economical to use and can change over time to give a different ambience to your artwork. What's more, this neon artwork can live on for many years, by taking it to a neon specialist you can get the lights re-gassed thus, bringing them back to their original vibrancy and glow in your home. The incredible properties of this natural gas as an artistic medium, gives Mark's paintings a unique organic life force.

Invented in the late 19th century, neon came to be associated with cutting-edge glamour in the 1930s and 1940s before being harnessed by pop artists in the 1960s due to its association with advertising. Andy Warhol described neon as "one of the great modern things" and, later in the 1990s, it was used again as a core artistic medium by The Young British Artists group. Across its short history, neon has continued to captivate audiences and artists across the world and American artist Bruce Nauman, who is credited with being the grandfather of neon, was on exhibition at the Tate Modern in 2020 and 2021 which attracted thousands of visitors every day.