State Secrets & Black Power: Transforming Archival Research into Painting
Schedule
Thu May 28 2026 at 06:15 pm to 08:00 pm
UTC+01:00Location
UCL Institute of Advanced Studies, Common Ground (G11, Ground Floor, South Wing, Wilkins Building) | London, EN
About this Event
In this lecture, artist Rudy Loewe will present their PhD research, which interrogates Britain’s attempts to destroy Caribbean Black Power movements during the 1960s and 70s. Loewe uses painting to expose the Information Research Department, a once top-secret unit within the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, responsible for creating propaganda about global resistance movements and anti-communist states. Loewe will discuss how they envision this history in their painting as a way of spotlighting the continuation of British colonial legacies in the present.
Join us at 6.15pm for refreshments, and so we can start the lecture promptly at 6.30pm.
The lecture will be followed by a Q&A.
Accessibility: the venue is step free, and wheelchair accessible, and there are wheelchair accessible toilets on the same floor.
About Rudy Loewe:
Rudy Loewe is a multidisciplinary artist who blends painting, drawing, and sculpture to examine a complex web of socio-political dynamics. Through their work, Loewe brings to life histories unearthed through archival research and interviews.
In 2025, Loewe was the ninth exhibiting artist for the Art on the Underground Brixton Mural Programme. The Congregation honours the historic role that Brixton has played as a gathering space, particularly for London’s black communities.
Their solo exhibition 'Intimacies of Care - Spaces of Grief & Possibility’ reimagines a mental healthcare system that is equitable and supportive and will be showing at Wellcome Collection, 10 July 2026 – 7 February 2027.
[Website link: https://rudyloewe.com/Information ]
Propaganda Machine, Trinidad #5, Rudy Loewe (2023). Photography by Jonathan Bassett.
Where is it happening?
UCL Institute of Advanced Studies, Common Ground (G11, Ground Floor, South Wing, Wilkins Building), Gower Street, London, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 0.00
