Preston Likely

Preston Likely is a British mixed-media artist who has created a number of interactive public creations in the UK. His work often deals with the interplay of fact and fiction, coupled with elements of humour.
Likely was born in Kingston-Upon-Hull, and left the city in the early 1990s, having completed a Fine Art degree at University of Humberside, specialising in photography and film. He has lived in a number of cities in England, and in order to self-fund his projects, he has worked in a variety of jobs, including a postman and a tractor driver on a farm.
Art events career
In 1996, Likely placed a small advertisement in the magazine, announcing that he was raffling himself as a prize. The advert read: Win An Artist for A Day, and the cost to enter the draw was only twenty pence. The eventual winner of the raffle was London-based Jane Salathiel, who won Likely for a whole 24 hours. The episode featured in a double-page spread of issue number 169 of The Big Issue, February 1996. It was the first time that Likely's name had appeared in a major publication.
In 2010, Likely's name came to the attention of the British public when he placed an advertisement in a convenience shop window, near Yarnton, stating that he was selling his social identity (passport, birth certificate, driving licence, National Lottery numbers, and other personal details) in order to pay for his father's hip operation. The controversial story was immediately reported by the in October 2010, and afterwards spread to some national newspapers. BBC Radio Humberside - based in Likely's city of birth - soon picked up on the Identity for Sale story, and set up an interview between Likely and Peter Levy, who, during a live radio exchange, found the whole idea of selling one's identity somewhat bizarre. The Identity for Sale story terminated six months later, when another Oxford Mail report told of how Likely's project had incurred a negative outcome for his family.
In 2012, Likely and Summersdale Publishers Ltd produced Amuse Agents - When Small Ads Go Bad, a humorous book which comprised seventy fictitious advertisements that Likely had placed in shop windows throughout England during a two-year period.
During October 2013, Likely caused further controversy after he had left a series of notices on some empty shops in Rose Hill, east Oxford. The notices were intended to draw attention to the number of empty shops in the area. One particular notice, however, which was left on a Blockbuster shop, implied that a sex shop would soon be opening. Local traders took offence to the idea of a sex shop in their community and raised objections.
In 2015, Likely left dozens of books, with humorous, fake book jackets, on countless shelves in the Oxford Central Library. Upon discovering the fake books, the library contacted Likely, via Twitter, to express their delight at finding them.
Likely continued to create street art pieces in Oxfordshire, including Scene of an Art Incident and Bubble Entendres, before he was commissioned by Hull UK City of Culture 2017 to participate in the opening season of the 2017 City of Culture, Made in Hull, curated by Hull-born filmmaker Sean McAllister. Likely's brief was to turn an empty shop at number 6 Whitefriargate, in the centre of Hull, into an art installation. Within two months, the artist had fulfilled the brief when he created Amuse Agents - Hull's Premier Inconvenience Store, a piece that celebrated the dying art of shop window advertisements.
During the Hull City of Culture's Season 2, Likely organised a city-wide project called , which was a celebration of Hull's history and culture. Via social media, printed flyers and giant billboards, Likely invited everybody in the city to participate in the event, on the proviso that participants were encouraged to either wear, carry or create something yellow. Likely chose the colour yellow as it features on Hull's Coat of Arms.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu