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Larry Walker-Tonks
Larry Walker-Tonks was born in Hartlepool, England. He developed an interest in art at a young age and graduated from Teesside University in 2013 with a degree in fine art. Shortly after, Larry moved to Manchester in order to further his artistic career and continued to show work across the United Kingdom and internationally. In 2015 Larry began an MA in contemporary fine art at the University of Salford which he completed in 2017 with distinction. Larry has recently completed a residency at the Embassy of Foreign Artists, Geneva, Switzerland. Larry’s current practice explores issues surrounding dating apps like Grindr and Tinder and how, through a highly sexualized western culture, the sleaze is seeping through to our everyday lives and crossing boundaries it should not. Larry looks at how we present ourselves online, be it fabricating our day to day existence to impress our ‘friends’ or hiding behind a blank profile looking for love. He raises awareness of the pressures put upon people to have unsafe sex and the idea of the unsolicited ‘dick pic’ inviting the viewer to question why it is an accepted part of today’s culture. This manifests itself under the umbrella of GRUNDER, a series of tongue-in-cheek installations, grotesque sculptures and satirizing large scale prints. Larry Walker-Tonks aims to highlight the immense pressure put upon social media users to drop their morals, standards and their pants with little regard for their own sexual health.