Exhibition Alex Binnie

In the Prinzhorn Gallery renowned English tattooer Alex Binnie shows his portraits of his friends and colleagues from the tattoo world.

Including such famous names as Filip Leu, Freddy Corbin, Jondix and Thomas Hooper, alongside co-workers and clients from his London shop Into You, this series of intimate portraits takes his work to a new level. With a keen eye for details and composition Alex Binnie demonstrates his skills as a true craftsman and a devoted artist.

Never before has an tattoo artist made  a project of this scale, with a total of 36 illustrations (32 portraits, 3 torsos and 1 skull). 
Alongside this exhibition Alex Binnie released a book with a foreword written by Henk Schiffmacher, together with a short description of each person shown, seen through the eyes of Alex Binnie and limited to only 1000 numbered copies, which makes this book a real collectors item.

The portrayed are: Tomas Tomas, Tas Danazoglou, Mr Wim, Tim Lehi, Freddy Corbin, Duncan X, Lucy Prior, Alex Binnie, Neil Bass, Christos Zacharopoulos, Yvonne Ziegler, Khan, Filip Leu, Lain Freefall, Miles Chaperlin, Matt Black, Loretta Leu, Christoph Kremmling, Alex Stephenson, Curly, Dante Di Massa, Jondix Mahashaki, Shinji Horizakura, Thomas Hooper, Alsion Manners, Chisaki Matsushima, Blue Belle, Saira Hunjan, Liam Sparkes, Ron Athey, George Bone, Zoe Binnie, Croc Coulter and Calypso Saga.

Biography
Alex Binnie was born Alexander Michael Steven Binnie on 11 July 1959 in Oxford, England. He is primarily known as a tattooist and is also a printmaker; he has been a musician and performance artist.

As a tattoo artist he is known for being one of a group of artists who originated and popularized the use of large-scale tribal design (non-western, often Polynesian, and also involving elements of fusion across regional boundaries and traditions) in the West. His work reached a wide public with the publication of 1000 Tattoos by Henk Schiffmacher.
Alex Binnie graduated with a BA(hons) in Fine Art from Cardiff Art School (South Glamorgan Faculty of Art and Design) in 1982. He became a medical artist in 1985, first an AV technician at Royal Postgraduate Medical School, then a medical illustrator at St. Thomas and Guy's Hospitals.
His first tattoo studio in London was an unlicensed studio called Mother Art. It received some publicity from a newsletter published by Genesis P. Orridgeand offered early clients as much tattooing as they could stand in one sitting for 10 pounds sterling.

He moved to Los Angeles from 1991–1993, initially tattooing at the Gauntlet Studio in West Hollywood managed by his then-wife Elayne Binnie (now Elayne Angel owner of Rings of Desire and author of The Piercing Bible). Following this he worked at Body Electric on Melrose Ave, and then travelled to Seattle, working with Vyvyn Lazonga.
Binnie returned to London in 1993 and established Into You Tattoo in Clerkenwell. In 2005 he established Into You Brighton with Jason Mossen.
Binnie has been involved in printmaking in quite a different style to that of his tattoo work. He is represented by Ink_d in Brighton and Rise in Berlin. In 2010, a woodcut portrait was accepted into the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London. He has also created murals in two New York spaces.