Lancaster artist Andrew Mercer's Metropolis

Andy Mercer's work is on show until 11 May in the 2026 Exhibition Area

Andy Mercer is an awarding winning digital abstract artist from Lancaster.

He draws most of his inspiration from the North West urban landscapes.

In 2006 he became interested in using computers to create art.

Since then, the majority of his art has been produced using computers including Metropolis which is being exhibited at BBC Radio Lancashire's 2026 Exhibition Area until 11 May 2010.

Re-invented world

He sees no distinction between art created using computers and more conventional methods of producing art.

"We don't describe digitally worked music as digital music; it's all just music," says Andy. "I think the same applies to art."

The former chair of the "artist led" Storey Gallery in Lancaster freely acknowledges the debt he owes to 20th century northern urban artists Lowry and Major.

Andy enjoys the textures and imagery surrounding us on the streets

However, his art is of the present.

His work is full of fabulous contrasts and contradictions.

He enjoys the textures and imagery surrounding us on the streets: rusting metals, graffiti, rough concrete, street signs, torn weather swept posters and billboards, peeling and fading, revealing layers that create entirely new images; unplanned and unpredicted the raw material of our recycled, re-used re-invented world.

Mercer's layers of line, shape, colour, graffiti, and personal mark-making are crafted into an atmospheric patchwork of city life.

Like all artists, the social commentator is prevalent in his work with powerful messages and radical thoughts.

In 2009 he was an official exhibiting artist at the Grassington Arts Festival in North Yorkshire.

His work has pride of place in private collections in the UK, Canada, Australia, USA, France and Mexico and has been featured in publications around the world, the most recent being Swiss science magazine, Frontiers.

Metropolis is on show in the BBC Radio Lancashire's 2026 Exhibition Area on Darwen Street, Blackburn until 11 May 2010.