These images were initially created for Black History month in Southampton, 2009.
In that year they were showcased in and around the Uni, in magazines and behind artists in a Jools Holland-esque live show. This in itself was great but I got the call not so long ago that they wanted to put it up as a stand alone exhibition through Southampton's Milais Gallery in Southampton Solents main Concourse gallery.
A bit of background on the project, it was a collaboration between me and Ryan Gillet, a talented and sharply dressed illustrator based in Brighton. I sent him very large A1 black and white ink drawings and he crafted them into the colourful works you see below. ( He really did do a great job!)
We were at first asked to come up with our own
Black Icons so immediately I thought it would be all the more relevant to find those unsung Heroes who were English (if not local to Hampshire.) We got a few in such as "Walter Tull" - the first black officer and "Bernie Grant" - one of only 3 black MPs of his time who was by all accounts a superb campaigner against all forms of racism.
In the end we were given a list of more well known icons...
Still, a nice load of great people there's no arguing against that.
We got a pretty nice book made out of the show
We even got a flipping banner!
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