Time Warp: PoPsee’s Visionary Blend of Art And Culture

Meet PoPsee, also known as Barry Samms, a creative contemporary artist who seamlessly blends digital art with modern cultural references.

His work is a mesmerising blend of irony, humour, playfulness, nostalgia, and thought-provocation, using historical moments, pop icons, and luxury brands all carefully woven to deliver a compelling visual commentary on societal values.

How did your upbringing and experiences during the “Second Summer of Love” influence your artistic style and choice of contemporary cultural references in your artwork?

My upbringing was amazing, we were outside all the time, mixing with my friend’s older brother and his friends opened the door to BMXing, hip hop, breakdancing and graffiti which were all new to the UK at the time, the art scene that came from graffiti was huge, there was a book from America called Subway Art and we would go to the library just to look at it and the pictures of the New York subway trains covered in graffiti from there we would do all these designs in books replicating what they were doing on trains. This was all pre-internet which seems so strange now, how we had to hear about new things emerging mainly from the U.S. With the second summer of love, I was a teenager by then so had been playing around with art for a while but with no real direction, the party promotors used flyers to promote their parties, so I started designing these, I was just happy to see people looking at my artwork on a larger scale.

Your use of luxury brand logos and iconic images from different periods creates a unique visual statement. Can you elaborate on the message you aim to convey about society’s values through these juxtapositions?

I have a love-hate relationship with brands, I think we are like magpies and that we are attracted to these glitzy things, Bernard Arnault was a genius in the way he made these brands available to pretty much everyone who could afford them, it got to a point when I was younger where I wanted something from a brand but went in at their lowest cost item like a belt or a scarf just to say I had something, my one and only Ralph Lauren shirt certainly saw some nights out so fair play to them for making such a well-made garment.. I think there are a few sides to how I look at brands. There’s a side where you can wear a brand and it can feel luxurious and take you away from your day-to-day, they can give you confidence but at the same time it can be held on, have just paid £800 for a pair of sneakers when there’s a guy or girl outside the shop with a bowl asking for a donation so he or she can get a sandwich..

< Previous

1 of 10

Next >

PoPsee Cupid-With-Kicks

SAVE-THE-OCEAN-SHARKS-From-Plastic

Your journey from creating flyers for parties to becoming a full-time artist is fascinating. How did your early experiences in the party scene and the acid house movement shape your artistic evolution?

I was so young when that all happened, 16 and still at school so the only way we could get in was to help a guy we knew who provided the sound systems for a lot of the parties, he would pick us up in the afternoon we would drive to the venue set up and stay until the next day when the party had finished, help get it back in the van and he would drop us back off home, we did this for a couple of years, he knew the promotors so I offered to do the flyers, I was never big like Junior Tomlin or Pez but I just enjoyed the ones that I did, kind of gave what I was doing some daylight.

You’ve collaborated with notable figures in the music industry, and your jewellery was worn by Beyonce and Jay Z. How do these collaborations impact your artistic process and reach a broader audience?

We had the jewellery in Harvey Nichols in London and I remember getting the call from them to say that Beyonce had just been in and purchased a ring for her husband but could we resize it for her, from there I got to know her management, to have anyone buy our designs felt great but to have them on such well-known artists was amazing, it didn’t actually affect much in what we were doing other than give us lots of promotion, my process in everything even the jewellery is simple, the idea comes like a gift, I think on it a little bring it into existence and then move on, can seem a bit new age but it’s just what happens and it’s a feeling hard to describe.

As an artist, you aim to evoke different emotions and thoughts in your viewers. Can you share a specific artwork that had a profound impact on someone’s life or elicited unexpected reactions, and how did that experience resonate with you as an artist?

So recently I have a piece called I Dream’d in a Dream, the lady who purchased it said she works hard as a singer, and she had been through a couple of rough years and that she was just looking forward to coming home from work kicking her shoes off and sitting infant of that picture and enjoying it. I came away from meeting her and thought this is why I do art, I had another lady talk about the same piece to say that her daughter had an illness that makes her sleep a lot, I added the words from an INXS song to that piece that starts with sleep baby sleep, now that the night is over, it meant so much to her and I thought to be able to touch people’s emotions through my art is just priceless.