Selected Club Archive
A regularly rotated selection of some of the most iconic Mark Wardel/TradeMark club artwork, Polaroids, flyers and live/installation pictures from over the years.
Blitz Era - 1979 / 82
Soon after moving to London, quite by chance Wardel started meeting and hanging out with influential people on the interconnected scenes of fashion, music and nightclubs. He began Polaroiding and painting them. He had found the subject and context for his art.
Boy George - Mark Wardel studio - Brewer Street 1980 - Original © Polaroid
Ronny Brunswick Square 1982 - Original © Polaroid
Visage Pleasure Boys 12 inch Record Cover 1982
Robyn Beeche Polaroid - one of several given to Wardel by Steve Strange as reference for his illustration.
Billy Idol and Steve Strange - Mark Wardel studio - Brewer Street 1979 - Original © Polaroid
David Sylvian - Nomis Studios 1982- Original © Polaroid
Kim Bowen At PX 1980 - Original © Polaroid
Eddie and Rocky at Johnny's 1982 - Original © Polaroid
Trade Era - 1990 / 96
After spending the remainder of the 1980s creating record covers for artists such as Hans Zimmer and Zaine Griff and storyboarding videos for Bryan Ferry, Queen, Psychedelic Furs, Talk Talk and various others, Laurence Malice, one of Wardel's music business clients decided to launch Trade ...the first legal 24 hours licensed gay / mixed rave at Turnmills in Clerkenwell and recruited him to create the artwork / imagery for the club. Trade went global and his homoerotic neo - pop artwork for the club became known worldwide.
Heaven Era
As Trade gathered momentum on it's way to become one of the all time iconic clubs, Wardel (now adopting the moniker Trade - Mark) saw his artwork attract demand from other gay clubs and businesses around London and internationally… Largest of all was Heaven, the gay super-club opened in 1979 which recruited TradeMark to illustrate the flyers and press adverts for it's flagship Saturday Is Heaven mid 1990s party night.
Glitterbox Era 2015 - Present Day
After a period in which Wardel concentrated on painting and exhibiting his work in galleries and museums internationally, his Trade era artworks came to the attention of Simon Dunmore CEO of Defected Records who were launching Glitterbox, a new party brand and felt that Wardel's 'cut and paste' retro style imagery would be a perfect fit for the brand. Wardel was onboard and became the official Glitterbox flyer artist, a position he holds to the present day.
