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Collect. Cut. Paste. Overlap. Underlay. Construct. Revise. Retool.
London-born artist and activist Peter Kennard has spent his 50-year career harnessing the language of photomontage to communicate with the public. The images that result incite debate and debunk myths. Often, they flatten time, aligning events and their consequences into a single picture.
Peter Kennard: Visual Dissent, curated by Futurecity and organised in parallel with Pluto Press’ new publication of the same name, celebrates the visual power of Kennard’s collective works from the past decades. The exhibition walls unfold with historical timelines of key events, layered posters and even a display of Kennard’s montage tools, carefully selected and situated by the artist himself.
The exhibition invites you to consider the role of photomontage in engaging the public and inciting conversation, asking: How can images disrupt the familiar in streets, neighbourhoods and cities?
Peter Kennard was born in London in 1949 and lives and works in Hackney, East London. He is He studied at the Slade and the Royal College of Art. His work has been at the cutting edge of political art since his work protesting the Vietnam War in 1968. His photomontages, installations and paintings are known globally, gaining exposure in galleries, on the streets, in newspapers, magazines, posters and books.
In recent years his work has been included in many group exhibitions, including, 'Media Burn', Tate Modern; 'Rude Britannia', Tate Britain; ' Forms of Resistance', Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and solo exhibitions including, ‘At Earth’ in Raven Row, London and a year long retrospective, ‘Peter Kennard: Unofficial War Artist’, at the Imperial War Museum in 2015-16.
His work is in many public collections including, in the UK, Tate, Victoria and Albert Museum, Imperial War Museum, Science Museum, National Portrait Gallery , British Museum, British Council and Arts Council Collection.
His work has been written about across a wide spectrum, including Banksy; ‘I take my hat off to you Sir’, Harold Pinter; ‘Kennard sees the skull beneath the skin all right’ and John Berger; ‘Peter Kennard’s work is haunting, Eschewing words, it insists on not being forgotten. He is a master of the medium of photomontage.’
He is Professor of Political Art at the Royal College of Art, London.
#FutureCity #VisualDissent
Click here for more information about The Gallery at Foyles
Tickets: Free entry, no booking required
Venue: The Gallery at Foyles, Level 5 107 Charing Cross Road
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