Rudy Loewe is a UK-based artist who uses painting, drawing, textiles and sculpture as a method to visualise Black histories and social politics. Their practice explores what has become truth in the collective memory by looking at the past whilst envisaging futures that centre Black queer and trans experience.
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A current area of the artist's research is an ongoing visual examination of The National Archives, carried out during Loewe’s PhD. Their PhD research interrogates and exposes Britain’s role in suppressing Black Power movements in the English-speaking Caribbean during the 1960s and 70s. The documents uncovered serve as source and reference material to the heavily researched and informed paintings, which reflects on the artist’s Caribbean heritage and interprets the history and stories they have uncovered.
Loewe wants to unearth these recently declassified histories and highlight the injustice served at this moment of Caribbean independence. In doing so, they question the dominant retelling of independence that has been prescribed and controlled by the British Empire and they give a voice to those suppressed by the state.
Further areas of interest within Loewe's practice include Caribbean folklore figures, such as Anansi and Carnival mas like Moko Jumbie. Moko Jumbie are stiltwalkers prominent in Caribbean carnival celebrations and are depicted in Loewe's painting 'February 1970, Trinidad #1' and in their outdoor sculpture 'The Reckoning', presented at the Liverpool Biennial 2023. Within the latter, the figures are transported to the site of the Old Dock where they confront Britain’s colonial legacy and its contemporary reverberations. Anansi is an Akan god of knowledge and trickery, most commonly depicted as a spider - the figure plays a significant role in the artist's current research, residencies and new works.
Loewe's background in illustration, and long term fascination with comics and their format, has been the inspiration to the artist's approach to painting and defining style. Many of Loewe's paintings are created to be read like a comic book page, bringing together text and imagery on the canvas, and are regularly displayed in sequential narrative. This aids in providing understanding and context to their audience, and allows for an informed interpretation of the history and subjects they are depicting, which is fundamental to Loewe’s practice. Their work is a portal to imagine and learn about these histories.
Rudy Loewe (b. 1987, London, UK) lives and works in London, UK. They hold a BA from the University of Brighton, UK; an MFA from Konstfack, Stockholm, SE; they are currently working towards a PhD in Fine Art Practice at University of the Arts London. Residencies include: Speculative Ecologies 2023, Labverde, Amazonia, BR (2023); 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); and Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, UK (2024).
Loewe has exhibited internationally in institutions and galleries including: Humber Street Gallery, Hull, UK: South London Gallery, London, UK; Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham, UK; Staffordshire St, London, UK; New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK; Botkyrka Konsthall, Stockholm, SE; Royal Academy, London, UK; Regart Centre D’Artistes En Art Actuel, Lévis, CA; VITRINE Fitzrovia, London, UK; DobraVaga, Ljubljana, SI; and 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, London, UK.
They have had public commissions internationally, including: Liverpool Biennial 2023, UK; 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 OrDie! Grafikens Hus shopfront window, Södertälje, SE.
They are currently in residence at XiR, Toronto, CA, producing workshops and new work ahead of their involvement in the Toronto Biennial in September 2024. They are also the 2023/2024 resident at Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, UK.
Current/Forthcoming projects include: Toronto Biennial 2024, CA; Rice McKeown Exhibition Space, Liverpool, UK; and a solo booth at Independent 2024, New York, US, presented by VITRINE.
