Kid Acne is Sheffield’s most prolific artist. He’s been painting graffiti, making fanzines, comics and music since the early 90’s. His work can be found all over the world. On the eve of his first solo exhibit in Sheffield he managed to find enough time to talk with us about his work and influences.

Why the name Kid Acne?

'Cos I was a spotty teenager. I was interested in Hip-Hop and graffiti as a kid, and a lot of people had pseudonyms or tags or stage names, there were a few people called Kid something. The kid aspect came from Hip-Hop, and Acne because it was more British and self-deprecating. So it’s a balance of both really. British self-deprecation mixed with New York Hip-Hop.

Your work features a lot of words, is this the graffiti influence?

When I was about 12 someone showed me some subway art and I was just captivated by the idea of painting rather large scale in spray paint.  At the same time I was interested in comic books and fanzines and making music, so I mixed them together, and that’s my style. One of the main things with graffiti is you have your own style and don’t plagiarise other artists. It’s quite important to me, to develop my own way of doing things and try not to copy people too much.

Kill Your Darlings is your new exhibition at the Millennium Gallery. It’s your first solo exhibition right?

It’s my first solo show in Sheffield yeah.

How come it took you so long?

I don’t really plan things, I’ve never had a C.V or a business card, I don’t tout my work out, I get on with it and it seems to happen quite naturally through word of mouth, and I get offers. I suppose it’s through a D.I.Y approach just getting on and doing it. I’ve not approached galleries to get shows, they’ve come to me because they’ve seen my work in the street or they’ve seen it elsewhere. It wasn’t something that I’d have ever thought of myself but they (Millennium Gallery) contacted me at the end of last year, and I’m really pleased to be doing it.

The exhibition is a bit of a retrospective; there’s a lot of your work form the 90’s, how long have you been working on the new stuff like the sculptures?

The last 6-months. It’s a purge this exhibition, there’s a few new things in there but it’s really a combination of pieces I’ve been doing over the past few years. It’s semi-retrospective but it’s not chronological. People might be used to seeing my work, especially in Sheffield, but that’s a small fraction of the larger body of work I do in galleries or as an illustrator.

How much stuff did you have to sort through?

I worked with Peter&Paul, who’ve done the Tramlines (Sheffield Festival) designs this year. They helped curate a lot of the content and the look of the exhibition, as did Rowena at the Millennium galleries, you’re not always the best person to view what you make, so I like to collaborate with people for these decisions.

There’s a film at the exhibition, where did the concept come from?

That’s more of a work in process. The sort of female warrior characters I’ve been doing, they’ve been through loads of guises, I started doing them about 8-9 years ago, they’ve sort of evolved into this tribe of stabby women. I’m trying to bring it together with animation and sculpture. Generally with a painting I’m fairly sure what it will look like before I start doing it, but with film, animation and sculpture I have no idea. That’s what’s exciting for me, to challenge myself and push myself as much as I can.

What else have you got planned?

I’m working on animation series, I’m doing an exhibition in Beijing, a group show in LA next month, a solo show in Italy next year, that’s about it. The Kill Your Darling’s show is unique in that it features older work, its something I’ve never done before and I don’t intend to do for quite some time.

Can you recommend any other Artists?

I really like what Phlegm’s doing at the moment. There are tons of great people in Sheffield, I’m hoping that this exhibition might be a starting point for Millennium and other galleries to give opportunities to outsider art. There’s a lot of abstract, graphic, contemporary stuff in this city and I think it should be celebrated.

Kill Your Darlings runs from 22 July- 23 October at Millennium Gallery Sheffield