And the around about way to Break The Glass via Tim Stoner’s Negative Space at Pace Gallery, Anne Rothenstein’s subtle mystery at Stephen Friedman Gallery and a number of other shows along Cork Street in the late afternoon as we wait for Black Star to open. So far the still relatively new Kearsey and Gold space at the end of the street just beyond Redfern and Flowers has been rather rewarding, especially that Dilwyn Smith show late last year as well as that Material Syntax group show from earlier this year (or was that last year as well?). Last Thursday it was the turn of a rather interesting artist called Leonard Iheagwam, an artist also known as Soldier, he’s opening his rather immediately good looking solo show Black Star in the intimate West End space. First thought is science fiction, Afro-futurism and the notions of the African diaspora, a culture jousting with science and well there it is on the Gallery’s own show statement, didn’t really need them to say it and I have only just got around to reading it but yes, this is Afro-futurism to the max – 

“Leonard “Soldier” Iheagwam (b.1999, Lagos, Nigeria) is a London based multidisciplinary artist whose work blends Pop Art influences with reflections on his upbringing in Lagos. Black Star is the artist’s second solo exhibition in London. The exhibition is a continuation of Soldier’s investigation into what African Pop Art could be. ‘Nigeria is a dumping ground for consumer culture. The West literally dumps products’ Soldier points out. It is this state of affairs that influences the concerns in the body of work for Black Star. The landscapes and protagonists of the exhibition have their genesis in an imagined manifesto titled “Afro-Futurism”.

Science fiction, that Afro-Futurist manifesto that postulates a dystopian future in which a hope in humanity is rediscovered. The machines and ideologies that promised liberation have betrayed humankind yet in a world that is on the verge of ecological and social collapse hope is found: machines have intertwined with humans; new technologies have merged with ancient wisdom; a new paradigm is reclaiming what has been lost and AI telling us everything, seems kind of fitting this time aroun

“Soldier is concerned with ‘everything the world is, and everything the world could be…’. In Black Star the Nigerian cultural landscape, Pop Art and sci-fi culture merge in the future Soldier presents us with”.  

Kearsey and Gold are the new kids on the Cork Street block, if you’re not one of the beautiful people you’re very nearly almost treated like you’re invisible or at times dangerously close to feeling like you’re in the way, it does mean you can quietly overhear things though and reactions to this show are as positively strong as you’d expect them to be. Maybe not quite feeling the Pop Art but the Science Fiction is turned up to the maximum and the use of colour powerful, strong in more than just the obvious way, stylishly painted in oils, more illustration than graphic novel, I guess you call call it Pop Art in a futurist kind of way, clever plays on Science Fiction flavoured imagery, the repeated eclipse motif, beautifully painted, the pieces really speak for themselves, or maybe question for themselves? There’s a lot to consider here, a lot that could be read, a lot that maybe remains unsaid? Really is going to be interesting to see where Leonard “Soldier” Iheagwam goes next. Hey, he’s only in his mid twenties, he’s got a whole world of possibilities ahead. This is a strong show, a bold show, a rewarding show, a challenging show. I might not be cool enough for them but Kearsey and Gold are delivering in Cork Street, if this show had a soundtrack it might well involve Sun Ra, it feels like then, it feels like now, it feels like a healthy slice of a future, maybe even hope…  (sw)

Previous Kearsey and Gold coverage on these pages  

Kearsey & Gold is at 19 Cork Street, London, W1S 3LP. Black Star is on until 3rd May 2025. The gallery is open Tuesday through to Saturday,11am until 6pm (5pm on Saturdays)       

Soldier on Instgram

As always, do click on an image to enlarge or to run the slide show…