About

Oor Monsters is an ongoing collaborative project with husband & wife team, Philip Thompson & Gabrielle Reith. Oor Monsters started life as an idea for a print show they had at Aberdeen’s “Beautiful Mountain” café in 2010. Gabrielle & Philip each produced a set of A5 2 colour screen prints, Gabi opting for Greek Mythologies / “Classic” monsters & Philip explored “problems as monsters”, where creations such as the “one sided conversation monster” and the “Stain monster” came to life. The show was well attended & garnered very positive reviews from attendees.

Oor Monsters Poster (Gabi Version)
Oor Monsters Poster (Gabi Version)
Oor Monsters Poster (Phil Version)
Oor Monsters Poster (Phil Version)
Oor Monsters invite text
Oor Monsters invite text

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Building on the success of “Oor Monsters in the Beautiful Mountain” Gabrielle & Philip submitted work to the wonderful Pictoplasma, who put a call out to illustrators & creatives for ideas on “the missing link” (characters inspired by the Yetti) for their Paris Show at la Gaite-Lyrique. Both Gabi & Phil were successful, and shown with many other world class illustrators.
Brimming with confidence Gabi & Phil approached the Aberdeen Art Centre (ACT) to host “Oor Monsters II”. Act gave Gabi & Phil the space to try more experimental works. Constructing 3d aspects & more “installation” based work, the Oor Monsters II was again well received & admired by all that came. The work was commented to be “something very different for Aberdeen”.
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Opening up the Oor Monsters project to other Aberdeen Based illustrators, Gabi & Phil worked with Junction Arts to create Oor Monsters III. This show invited Cosmic Nuggets, Iain Gildea, Mags Gray, Kate Guthrie, Morag McGee, Melodie Stacey, Aubin Stewart, Max Stewart & Stu Awesome to Join Gabi & Phil to explore & create new works, with a fun monster theme. Jon Reid (Mood of Collapse) did a brilliant photographic documentation of it, check it out!
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Oor Monsters IV & V – Explored the Skene Woods & Surroundings for their NEOS shows. Works were developed for the site specific installations. Phil created some interactive works, growing in confidence from his ACC Cultural Funding he won, to get 1 to 1 training from Martin Evans, a local Arduino Expert & “Oor Mannie” installation for the Look Again festival. Gabi explored a more 3d based appraoch & ran several workshops. Images were shown on Gabi & Phil’s instagram accounts, so follow them & you might get some new & exclusive images…

Oor Monsters VI (June 2018) is taking shape as a newspaper for the “look again” festival. Curated & created by Gabi & Phil, it will include their usual unusual look at normal things in a monstrous light, as well as having fantastic contributions from local & national illustrators & creatives. The paper will include “spy glasses” for all good citizens to use to document & report their findings of any unusual “goings on” in Aberdeen during the festival.

Oor Monsters VII (February 2023) Gabi & Phil were delighted to be offered the Aberdeen Music Hall ‘Play it Forward’ Commission, which aims to develop conversations around the theme of climate and explore how we can capture a wide audience through visual art with a focus on play.

We are creating interactive & passive sculptural works for the Music Hall’s exhibition space – and have been asked to run an “Oor Monsters Workshop” based on our proposal, of recycling, 3d collage & interactivity.

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