London’s Bookery Gallery’s “All About Ink” exhibition opens this weekend

By John Freeman on April 7, 2023

London’s The Bookery Gallery hosts an inky extravaganza, All About The Ink!, this month, opening on Saturday 8th April and running until 6th May 2023.

Bookery Gallery - All About Ink 6th April - 6th May 2023

An exhibition of contemporary cartooning and comics art, the show will be a cavalcade of inky splendour, hanging original works by over 20 cartoonists, alongside digital displays of works in progress, coloured finishes and short films.

The Gallery hopes to communicate the breadth of creativity bubbling away in the medium, with an emphasis on the British small press and overground comics scenes, from auto-bio to art to abstract, funny to creepy to thrilling. It’s intended as a celebration of the joy of people moving ink and graphite and colour around on paper, during an age where the screen is conquering every aspect of our creative lives, and AI is reaching for us all with its wonky malformed fingers.

From amateurs to veritable ink royalty, it’s all on the walls, the beautiful, the beguiling, the wistful and weird. Especially the weird.

Artists include Krent Able, Jason Atomic, Sean Azzopardi, Rachael Ball, Kate Charlesworth, Hunt Emerson, Fraser Geesin, Sarah Gordon, Julian Hanshaw, David Hine, Michael S Kane, John Paul Milne, Douglas Noble, Ed Pinsent, Jenny Robins, Mark Stafford, Lucy Sullivan, Bryan Talbot and Oscar Zarate, with more to be confirmed.

There will launch with drinks and such on Saturday 8th April, 6.30pm until 10.00pm, and a finissage party on the 6th May, with musicians and performers in attendance.

There are also plans to host a panel discussion on the state of cartooning and cartoonists during the show’s run.

• All About Ink runs from Saturday 8th April until 6th May 2023 | Bookery Gallerie, 20 Church Street, London NW8 8EP | Web: bookerygallerie.com

• Check out our British and Irish Comics Events page for information on other comic and illustration-related exhibitions

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.