Rudy Loewe

23 Jun-12 Aug 2023

PV 22 Jun 2023, 6-9pm

Overview

Rudy Loewe is a visual artist using painting and drawing as a method to interrogate and expose Britain’s role in suppressing Black Power movements in the English-speaking Caribbean during the 1960s and 70s.

Loewe’s approach to painting reflects their background in comics and illustration, combining text with image and sequential narrative. Bold and colourful acrylic juxtaposes the voices of black resistance with that of the British state. The works call into question the dominant retelling of independence from the British Empire and its lasting legacies.

Loewe uses archival documents as source material for their paintings, questioning the role of the state archive in how history is retold. Their practice based PhD draws upon recently declassified records from the Information Research Department, a once top secret unit within the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, responsible for creating propaganda.

Rudy Loewe (b. 1987, London, UK) lives and works in London, UK. They hold a BA in Illustration from the University of Brighton, UK (2010), an MA in Fine Art from Konstfack, Stockholm, SE (2018) and is currently working towards a PhD in Fine Art Practice at the University of London.

Loewe has exhibited internationally in institutions and galleries including: Humber Street Gallery, Hull, UK: South London Gallery, London, UK; New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK; Botkyrka Konsthall, Stockholm, SE; Vallentuna Kulturhus, Stockholm, SE; Marabourparken, Stockholm, SE; Royal Academy, London, UK; Regart Centre D'Artistes En Art Actuel, Lévis, CA; DobraVaga, Ljubljana, SI; 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, London, UK; Staffordshire St, London, UK; Ugly Duck, London, UK.

They have had public commissions including: LDN WMN billboard commissioned by Tate and the Mayor of London, London, UK; Becontree Forever schools project, commissioned by Barking & Dagenham council, London, UK; The Depths of Our History, Contemporary Art Space Project commissioned by Iniva and RSA Academies, UK; Black Women in History, Pen Store shopfront window, Stockholm, SE; PROCESSIONS banner commissioned by Artichoke, London, UK; Draw Or Die! Grafikens Hus shopfront window, Södertälje, SE.

Residencies include: Early Years Artists in Residence, The Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (2020); Distributed Identities residency, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Canada (2019); We Dey, X Space, AU (2019); The Bothy Project, Scotland (2019).

Current and forthcoming exhibitions include a solo show at Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham, UK (until 30 April 2023) and a presentation in the Liverpool Biennial 2023, UK (opening 10 June 2023).

Artists