Illustrated Guide to London 2023

14 July – 24 September 2023

General Public, Free Admission, Monday to Friday, 10AM – 5PM or by appointment (contact roslarts@rosl.org.uk)

Olivia Brotheridge | Jacinto Caetano | Ben Edge | Ed Gray | Katie Ponder | Clair Rossiter | Anna Rumsby | Hannah Warren | Café Royal Books | zines from Kevin Bagnall

London’s open city message has developed over time to form diverse communities, cultures and vibrant subcultures full of life and celebrations of their own. Illustrated Guide to London brings together the brightest talents in contemporary illustration, art and design depicting what makes London such a popular and unique destination told through the story of its people, landmarks, destinations and topography.

A collective display of works by Hannah Warren takes inspiration from the sense of community she sketches as she walks around the city, or as Warren describes them “little snapshots of life”.  Similarly, painter Ed Gray focuses on what catches his London eye, “A heavenly and hellish vision, emotions that coexist in its people and streets, and are layered beneath its streets in the unknowable past lives of others.” Anna Rumsby, who has previously characterised Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in print commissions for ROSL, adopts a more tangential approach to London – capturing gatherings and a communal sense of place from a visitor’s perspective.

People of London are also the subject for reading materials available to enjoy in the Central Lounge during the exhibition. Café Royal Books is an award-winning publisher of documentary photography, committed to producing photobooks predominantly documenting social and cultural change. A sample of their volumes can be viewed in the reading racks on subjects such as Down the Tube: Travellers on the London Underground 1987 – 1990, New Romantics: London 1980 – 81, Brixton 1973 – 1975 and Soho 1997 – 1990. Alongside this vivid display are reproductions of self-published fanzines XL5, See You in Court, Rhythm Plus and Strong Foundation, all following the burgeoning London music scene of the early 1980s. These were originally photocopied, stapled, and distributed by Kevin Bagnall, A.K.A. AFC Baggy and sold at legendary music venues around town such as The Marquee and the Bridge House.

Iconic landmarks are celebrated in a new series of works by Katie Ponder as both a print edition and installation on a much larger scale across ROSL’s Gibbs Staircase. Jacinto Caetano’s ‘Twisted Line’ vision of travelling through landmarks with kinetic white line drawings of buildings and structures move daily, emblazoned on all 12,000 iconic red Santander Cycles throughout the capital. For this exhibition he also displays Soho Tales for the first time, an unrealized set of illustrated sonnets dedicated to the energetic life and times of the heart of London’s West End (originally proposed for the site entrance to the Tottenham Court Road Crossrail station).

Navigating the big city, you may have encountered the layered colourful topographical maps of Olivia Brotheridge, who has collaborated on many themed area designs of the London boroughs. Walking your eye around these image rich environments will lead to a new appreciation of the familiar spaces they describe. Clair Rossiter’s illustrated mapped history of lesser-known landmarks and strange events, on the other hand, take the story of London on an alternative plotted walking tour. Ben Edge’s figurative paintings celebrate aspects of British folklore and storytelling. On the Origin of Species (2017) depicts naturalist, geologist, and biologist Charles Darwin set against an allegorical modern-day London which references his own life history. Darwin was inspired by observations of the struggling lives of Victorian Londoners and the unforgiving ‘survival of the fittest’ nature of London itself.

For more information and sales enquiries please email roslarts@rosl.org.uk 

Artist Biographies

Olivia Brotheridge is a London based Illustrator specialising in colourful illustrated maps to promote cities, businesses and events, and illustrations for magazines, fashion, food, travel and games. She has worked on travel publications for Visit Seattle and Soho House, designed for The Big Draw and Hugo Boss and mapped for the likes of Hilton Hotels, Victoria and Westminster BID and Hackney Council. With a history in printmaking, Olivia works in layers of colour and loves to design both digitally and physically.

Jacinto Caetano is a freelance Art Director, Senior Designer and artist living and working in London. Originally from Seville, Spain, previous clients include Santander, Sky, B&Q, Warburtons, NowTV and Gillette as well as being a visible LGBTQ+ advocate in his design work for London Gay Pride campaigns #NOFILTER and Love Happens Here.

Ben Edge lives and works in North London and studied Fine Art at West Kent College and London Metropolitan University. He is predominately a figurative artist interested in folklore and storytelling, whose paintings and film work depict the extraordinary lives of ordinary people. Recent exhibitions include Cubitt 30, Victoria Miro Gallery, London; Royal Academy Summer Show, Royal Academy, London (invited by Bill Woodrow RA) and Ritual Britain: Ben Edge and the Museum of British Folklore, a solo exhibition curated by Simon Costin, The Crypt Gallery, St Pancras New Church, London. Edge has also created artwork and art directed music videos for musical acts such as the Fat White Family and Raf Rundell and released his own debut solo album titled ‘New Tradition’ that is now available on Vinyl on Glass Modern Records.

Ed Gray is an artist and educator, having studied at Wimbledon Art College and Cardiff University of Wales. In 2001 Gray completed a residency Fellowship to the Masterworks Foundation of Bermuda as well as Guga S’Thebe Arts and Cultural Centre Langa Township Capetown South Africa (2010); Searcys, The Gherkin, 30 St. Mary Axe (2012) and various London schools, most recently Boutcher School, Bermondsey (2022). He is in various private and public collections including Southwark Museum Archives, Tate Britain Archive and Masterworks Gallery of Bermuda.

Katie Ponder studied Illustration at Falmouth University and received the ‘AOI Book Award for New Talent’. In 2017 she was awarded second prize for ‘Folio Society Book Illustration Competition’ and winner of the ‘House of Illustration People’s Choice Award’. Katie has also won the ‘Glyndebourne Tour Art Competition’. Ponder’s list of clients include: Dorling Kindersley, Penguin, Simon and Schuster, Oh Comely Magazine, Glyndebourne, Canterbury Cathedral and her work has been exhibited at Somerset House.

Clair Rossiter studied Illustration at Falmouth University. She graduated in 2014 and has been a freelance illustrator ever since, working on a range of licensing, children’s publishing and editorial projects. Clair specialises in map-making and London has been a constant source of inspiration for her. When Clair was a student she worked as a steward in Buckingham Palace gardens, which initially inspired a London- themed card range for Paperchase. Since then she has illustrated two children’s books on the subject, as well as a London map commissioned by Westminster Abbey. Her previous clients include KEW, Paperchase, Harrods and The Washington Post.

Anna Rumsby studied Fashion Design at University of Derby (2003) and MA Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art (2014). In 2016 she was awarded a scholarship to study at The Royal Drawing School and has since been teaching on their Young Artists programme. Anna has previously been commissioned to produce the 2021 ROSL Christmas card after the overwhelming success of her HM Print (subsequently loaned to the Reform Club, Pall Mall – on display as a part of their Jubilee exhibition).

Hannah Warren lives and works in South London. Warren studied Graphic Design at Central Saint Martins (2006) and MA Communication Art and Design at The Royal College of Art (2009). She is represented globally by Jelly for her illustration work and her clients include Google, Nike, Just Giving, Fortnum & Mason, TFL, The Telegraph and The New York Times.

Kevin Bagnall lives in Romiley, Stockport. Having left school post-A levels being fed up with learning (and destroying his mum’s hopes of being able to boast that her son went to Uni), Kevin ended up as a bought ledger clerk in an Advertising Agency at the age of 21. Work was purely a way of earning money to go to gigs and he started to write a fanzine to promote neglected bands. Leaving London in 1990 for a job in Manchester (and a chance to raise his two girls in a better environment), Kevin ended up managing his stepdaughter’s bands, being made redundant, writing a novel (I’m With The Band, Aren’t I? [Still available on Amazon, kids]) and is now a happily busy Grandad, Carer, Writer and future manager of up and coming popstars Sick Fix, featuring his 14 year old Grandson, Ted. He may even re-start his fanzine as he is still attending those small gigs that influenced him in the first place, this time up north.

Café Royal Books make weekly publications, focusing on documentary photography linked to Britain and Ireland. This includes the work of photographers from all backgrounds, the widely known, the unseen and the underrepresented. Each book focuses on a single body of work, and each book is part of the larger, extensive series. As a series they provide a valuable resource into cultural and social change in Britain and Ireland. So far there are over 600 books in the series, subjects are wide and varied and include folk customs, protest, street photography, mining and industry, community and place or city, architectural change, music and youth culture, politics, and religion. These are collected by galleries, libraries and museums, preserving and helping to increase the visibility of the work while making the books publicly accessible. Collectors are wide and varied and include, MoMA NY, Harvard University, Oxford University (Bodleian Library), Cambridge University, The British Library, The Hyman Collection, Martin Parr Foundation, TATE, V&A / National Art Library.