Josephine Aherne: New wave pop art with a twist

Over the past few months, pop art has experienced a renewed wave of popularity in galleries and exhibitions across the Costa del Sol. This revival has been marked by the display of Andy Warhol’s Mao in Colourful Costume at the latest exhibition at the Museo Carmen Thyssen, Marisol Escobar’s Neither Muses nor Models currently on show at the Museo Casa Natal Picasso and the History of Pop Art exhibition recently held in Torremolinos. Even though the original movement peaked decades ago, it is still very influential today, particularly on artists such as Josephine Aherne, a British artist who is set to take part in a collective exhibition in Cómpeta next month.

Josephine first arrived in the province of Malaga in the late 1980s, although she has lived permanently in Fuengirola since 2000.

Born in Bournemouth, the 58-year-old descends from a family of artists, including her mother, who was “the most super talented artist I ever have known”.

“My maternal grandfather was a Royal Academy of Art member in the 1950s and ‘60s. My mother, Evon Aherne, was an illustrator and muralist on the Costa del Sol for over 30 years. She taught art at the Mijas art centre, where she was president for about four years,” she proudly explains to SUR in English.

Josephine did not take the usual route via art school or university, because, as she points out, she travelled a lot during her youth due to her parents’ work. She left school with just one O level, in art, of course.

She began her artistic journey as a portrait artist, as well as developing a talent as a caricaturist, creating exaggerated portraits for corporate companies in London.

Josephine met her husband, whom she describes as a “romantic”, when she went for an interview at a pub in Fuengirola shortly after settling in the town. At the time, she was unaware that the man she would marry in Gibraltar in 2003 was the lead singer and songwriter of one of London’s pioneering punk rock bands, The Wasps. It was her introduction to vocalist Jessie Lynn-Dean that inspired her to return to creating art after a hiatus of several years. Josephine was tasked with designing the posters when the band reformed on the Costa del Sol shortly after the pandemic.

“Meeting Jessie opened me to the world of punk rock. I designed all of The Wasps publicity posters and I also did the artwork on their 2022 album, Punk Prayer. My current artwork is contemporary pop art music icons, with a twist,” she says.

This ‘twist’ can be seen in the four pieces she will exhibit at the Art Surrealism and Fantasy exhibition in Cómpeta between 1 and 15 June. Inspired by artists such as Vivian Westwood, Picasso and David Hockney, these pop art works feature Amy Winehouse, Freddie Mercury, Prince and George Michael, pop stars she adored in her youth. George Michael is depicted with a brooch covering one eye, a replica of the piece he wore in the video for the 1984 chart-hit Last Christmas.

“A friend of mine founded the Enticier jewellery company in London and we co-designed a reproduction of this brooch. George Michael gives the brooch to Kathy Hill’s character in a flashback scene, and later Andrew Ridgeley is seen wearing it - a visual clue that she gave it away,” Josephine explains.

Josephine’s work is being used in the advertising campaign of this London jewellers and their replica brooches will also be displayed during the upcoming exhibition.

An artist of many talents, she has also extended her practice into the realm of designing book covers. Among her works are the covers for books by author Robert Charles Hines, whose stories are marked by a distinctive blend of sinister undertones and wry, understated comedy.

“His books are exceptionally well written. They are a bit like Tales of the Unexpected. For the cover of his book Harsh Words, I used Jesse’s face, although with a more pronounced nose,” she says, bursting into laughter.

When Josephine is not creating her own art, she enjoys visiting local museums and art galleries, especially the Picasso Museum in Malaga, seeing as both her and her husband are “huge Picasso fans”. This is evident in one of her earlier pieces, Picasso’s Mona Lisa, with which she has adapted De Vinci’s archetypal masterpiece to the Malaga artist’s colourful cubist style.

“Living in the Malaga province is wonderful for an artist. There is a fantastic art community along the Costa del Sol. Along with this, we have some great galleries and museums. Among our favourites are Pompidou, CAC and, of course, the Museo Picasso,” she concludes.