Mauro Perucchetti seems to inhabit a different reality. He has acted, made films, designed buildings and produced art, apparently driven throughout by an intense creativity urge. Its most recent expression, in the form of giant jelly babies and heart-shaped hand-grenades, has just burst forth in Mayfair’s beautifully restored Halcyon Gallery. Apopalyptic is the culmination of ten years hard work. I went to talk to the man about his ‘Conceptual Pop Art’.

The seeds of Perucchettiʼs current practice were sown early. He recalls his first teenage foray into polyurethane resin, ʻa little skull cast inside a sphere, both made out of transparent resin, but with a slight difference in the transparencies so you could see the ghost of a skull.ʼ When asked why he made these things, he shrugs: ‘I just did!’

"Chairman Mao" © Mauro Perucchetti

Today heʼs still fascinated by the same material, although his manipulation of its properties has advanced. Having mastered this particular technique for casting polyurethane resin, he, quite truthfully, boasts, ʻNo-one else is doing what I do!ʼ And he’s working at a much larger scale, with a team of 10 assistants and a clutch of studios in rural Cheshire. Technical expertise aside, his works evince an uncommon social critique, revealing a keen awareness of the issues gnawing at the conscience of contemporary society. Witness the Statue of Liberty astride a missile. The jelly babies are ʻabout cloningʼ.

The results are brightly coloured, flawless and deceptively innocent-looking, and all make their socio-political point gently, without resorting to shock tactics. They are good-humoured, like Perucchetti himself. And prolific: even with commercial success looming, heʼs not resting. ʻIʼve got a million ideas and I canʼt stop working!ʼ

Luxury + Therapy (detail) © Mauro Perucchetti

Apopalyptic is at the Halcyon Gallery, 24 Bruton Street, W1J 6QQ, until 31 March 2009