Malcolm Poynter

Malcolm Poynter was born in Croydon in 1947 but grew up in Southampton. He is related to the painter Sir Edward Poynter which helped develop his interest in artwork, as did his boyhood reading of The Eagle. He attended Winchester School of Art (1965-67) and St Martin's College of Art (1967-70) where he was a contemporary of Gilbert & George, Richard Long, Bill Woodrow nad John Goto.

His comics work began to appear in the 1970s in underground newspapers, including "Eddie Trunker" adn "Rip Toph" in Oz and International Times. He also contributed to Xozmic Comics, It's All Lies, Rock 'n' Roll Madness Funnies, Animal Weirdness and Ally Sloper.

He worked for a wide range of magazine and book publishers, including Radio Times, Time Out, Image, Science Fiction Monthly (NEL), Pan Books and several top shelf magazines. He also did advertising for Levi jeans and Octopus Books and album artwork for Peter Gabriel.

He became art director for Mecanic, a high street fashion manufacturer and t-shirt printer and then produced graphics for many yearsa for ITN, Thames TV and Meridian TV.

In 2000 he returned to painting and subsequently had exhibitions in New York, London, Dorset and Wiltshire. He has also worked in embroidery.

A few years later, Poynter moved from his studio in Dalston, London, to Aigen, Austria, where he bought a former garden centre which he has turned into a gallery. Aigen is also the home of Nick Treadwell, Poynter's agent, who moved to Dalston some years before Poynter and bought a 500-year-old prison which he also turned into a gallery.

Examples of Malcolm Poynter's artwork can be found for sale at the Illustration Art Gallery.