Biography
Peter Robert McKee was born on 1 February 1966 in Sheffield to steelworker Frank McKee and Marjorie McKee (née Bullas) and grew up on a council estate in the Batemoor area of the city with two older brothers and one elder sister. His mother died of cancer when he was eight years old. [2] [3] [4]
Educated at Rowlinson Comprehensive School McKee's ambition was to go to art college however he ended up working in a factory. McKee instead was able to find a creative outlet through music (his current band is a ukulele group under the name of 'The Everly Pregnant Brothers') as well as designing logos and similar pieces of art although at the time his main focus was to try to find a record producer. [3] [4] [5]
McKee started sending drawings to a Sheffield Wednesday fanzine for which they offered him £50. Encouraged by this McKee started drawing for the Sheffield Telegraph and continues to do so. [5] [6] McKee decided to concentrate on his painting in 2004 and began by painting with emulsion on MDF boards. [7]
McKee opened his first London show, entitled ‘Lost Weekends’ in 2007 and has also exhibited in Birmingham and New York City since then. Subsequently, he was commissioned by Acme Studios to interpret characters from US TV shows The Simpsons , Family Guy and Futurama . [5]
In 2007 McKee was commissioned by Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher to paint him as part of Gibson Guitar’s “Guitar Town” show. McKee painted a portrait of the guitarist onto a 10-foot fibreglass guitar which was displayed as part of the open air exhibition on London’s South Bank. [8] In 2009 he created artwork for the Arctic Monkeys boxed set At the Apollo . [9]
In early 2010 McKee was invited to design a limited edition pair of Clarks Desert Boots, using the original style template. [10] To celebrate the heritage of the original boot he created images featuring a group of Mods, for the men’s boot, and Modettes for the women's. [11] The boots were sold in selected Clarks stores, specifically in Paris, New York and Japan.
Later in 2010 McKee collaborated with fashion designer Sir Paul Smith, staging an exhibition of his work at Smith's Tokyo store. [12] This saw the development of Teenage Kicks – a limited edition book celebrating the influence of music on youth fashion. Selected images were reproduced on Paul Smith clothing and bags specifically for the Japanese market. [13]
In June 2010 McKee opened a dedicated art gallery "A Month of Sundays" on Sharrow Vale Road in Hunters Bar, Sheffield. [4] After a number of years the shop was renamed Pete Mckee.
2012 saw McKee being invited to take part in a special project from Warp Films, celebrating its tenth birthday. Pete was asked to re-create ten posters from ten of their iconic films, including Dead Man's Shoes , Submarine and This is England . [14] [15]
More recently, he has also painted several murals around Sheffield. [16] [17] [18]
In 2016 Pete was asked to design a limited edition record player with British manufacturer Rega for Record Store Day. 500 of these Club Rega turntables were created.
In 2018 his collaborative show, ‘THIS CLASS WORKS’, sold out, with over 10,000 visitors coming to see this exhibition. [19] 2018 also saw Pete received an honorary doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University. [20]
In the Summer of 2019 Pete decided to tour a collection of classic McKee artworks to three new cities: Brighton, Birmingham, and Nottingham. The pop-ups only lasted for a few days with thousands of visitors at each. There were three posters created to represent each city and Pete also held book signings and ‘in conversation’ events to sold-out crowds at each location.
Between 2021 and 2023, Pete was asked by singer and musician Rhoda Dakar to create the cover artwork for her album Version Girl and the single releases that accompanied it. 7 covers have been created all featuring Rhoda herself and were released by Sunday Best Records.
Pete has been an ambassador for Teenage Cancer Trust for over 10 years. He was introduced to the charity by Noel Gallagher after creating a gig poster for a performance by Noel at the Royal Albert Hall. For the last 10 years, Pete has since collaborated with The Who, Paul Weller, Nile Rogers, New Order, Ed Sheeran, Pet Shop Boys, Madness, and many others on gig posters for their performances at The iconic venue. Each edition is signed and numbered by the artists performing as well as Pete and sold to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust. Beyond this, a Song Book was created to include all these lyrics and accompanying images
In the Autumn of 2023, Pete opened his new exhibition celebrating the live and love of two of his most popular characters Frank & Joy. Their story was told through the imagined pub The Buffer’s Rest where all the important events in their lives unfolded. For this exhibition Pete worked with set designers to build a pub within a warehouse in Sheffield. Visitors would enter the pub to view the couple’s story within allocated time slots.
“Frank and Joy first came to life in 2013 when I created the mural “The Snog” to promote my Joy of Sheff exhibition. To be honest, though, they had inhabited my world from the very beginning:
I just hadn’t give them names. But once I did, they took on their own life force and I felt compelled to explore their relationship. I fleshed out their story for a one-day art experience I curated called “Pub Scrawl”, where ten artists were paired up with ten pubs and people were invited to go on an “art crawl” to see them all. Fagan’s was my pub, and for my installation I chose to tell Frank and Joy’s story and their relationship with the pub.
The story of Frank and Joy is also a story of the pub they frequented since they first met. I wanted to show how we as a community use our pubs, how they fulfil such an important role. Just like in times past we might have gathered round a stone circle, the pub, like a meeting hut or a church, is a place to congregate, to reflect, to celebrate.” - Pete McKee
In Summer 2024 Pete will move his longstanding gallery to the new Leah's Yard development in Sheffield City Centre.
