Scourge of London’s developers and voice of the people, Edwin, drops his debut solo show ‘Shithouse to Penthouse’ at BSMT Space.
London’s development from sharehousing and affordable artist spaces to high-rise luxury apartments and hotdesk hell is perhaps irrepressible, but it at least demands comment. That’s where Edwin’s wit and words come in.
For anyone vaguely literate in East London, it would have been almost impossible not to have seen and understood at least one of Edwin’s works over the past decade.
Featuring a retrospective of street works alongside new art, the show is a powerful critique of the strategies deployed by developers to inflate their property values, the artists and artworks that form a part of those methodologies, the current status quo of life in London, and a balls out takedown of the rotten fucking Tories.
“Sometimes my work can be an intimate conversation with myself that just happens to be highly relatable” – Edwin
Contained in the voice of dissent shouted by his street works is a respectful nod to the lineage of King Mob and Heathcote Williams, whilst his protest poster series reminiscent of Steve ‘ESPO’ Powers and Christopher Wool. In his confronting social commentary, Edwin asserts that art and protest are inseparable.
‘Shithouse to Penthouse’, seeks, for the very first time in a gallery setting, to engage the viewer directly with the multi-faceted aspects of Edwin’s work that underpin the humanity of life in the big smoke.
“Like a haircut in the height of lockdown or a man lost in his phone at the pub, these are the throwaway moments I have chosen to explore and process by rendering them in paint and laying down those connections in my memory of that time and place” – Edwin
‘Shithouse to Penthouse’ opens with a private view at 6pm on April 20th at BSMT gallery in Dalston.
The show will run until May 7th. To RSVP for the opening night or for press enquiries please contact [email protected].
Photography credit Doug Gillen of Fifth Wall TV
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