Solo Exhibitions in London

First of all, thanks for everyone's submissions to the events blog here on Magnus. Not only is it great to read about everything that's going on out there in the big wide world, but I also can't wait to visit some of these events and see your work for myself.

Luke Kendall, (whose work you can find right here on Magnus) has a solo exhibition on at the Beach Blanket Babylon Gallery in Shoreditch this week. Titled "The Great Sparrow Campaign", it is named after the huge humanitarian crisis and famine that hit China in the late 1950's and Kendall has used this together with his personal distrust of institutions to inspire quite a dark collection. He has taken the strong visual influences of Communist propaganda posters and spun them into images that represent the sinister nature of their effects.
It is well worth going to and will only be on until 4th May, so get there quickly.

From the 9th - 18th May at the Old Truman Brewery, you can see Rupert Shrive's rather exciting re-workings of famous paintings and his own portraits. The exhibition is called "Post Painting" as Shrive attempts to bridge the gap between painting and sculpture by ripping, crushing and screwing up his almost completed work until he achieves what he considers to be it's vital essence. The press release tells me that "The resulting reliefs erupt from a trinity of creation, destruction and recreation - a process that is fraught with risk since it can end in either triumphant success or miserable failure. The window of time in which Shrive can work is so short that some paintings do not survive the treatment."
The resulting effect is surprisingly effective and definitely compelling. Admission is free, and the exhibition is open 11am-7pm Tuesday to Sunday.

Keep a close eye on the Magnus Blog in the coming weeks, because we have some fantastic events for you coming up - it is graduate season after all.

Katherine Whitehouse
Creative Director