Music & Love at Brixton East

Olivia Atkins talks to Samantha Clarke about her recent success with the Music & Love Exhibition at Brixton East. Photos by  Alex Curtis.

In the heart of Brixton and tucked just behind the markets lies one of our town’s best kept secrets. A former furniture warehouse has been converted into an arts space to showcase local talent.

Their most recent exhibition was Music & Love, which presented a collection of work from various artists. The launch night promised music, poetry and acoustic singing in a bid to promote the eye-catching show.

The event had a friendly and intimate feel as curator Samantha Clarke knew all the artists personally. She had her father Peter Clarke exhibit his work and her son, known musically as Santego, perform on the opening night with his group P.E.S.T.

She said: “I know so many fantastic creative people who never have a chance to show their work.  I wanted to get them all together. The title for the exhibition, Music & Love, was for the artists to interpret themselves. Music and love are my two favourite things. The art reflected the title.”

There was great variety among the art, as each artist presented their individual style and decided how to incorporate Samantha’s theme.

Of the venue, she said: “Brixton East made the event special.  It is such a brilliant space. Having two levels worked so well – with the art downstairs and the gig upstairs.”

The opening night was particularly special as there was a great turnout and people seemed very keen to mingle, interact with one another and find out more about the art. By the end of the night, most of the audience were up and dancing, with P.E.S.T. playing the final set of the night.

Samantha is keen to turn Music & Love into an annual event and is hoping that she can secure Brixton East again in March 2015. In the meantime, she has just confirmed that she has booked another slot at Brixton East for an exhibition entitled Circus that will run 13-16 November 2014.

This event will feature some of the same artists at Music & Love and provide a platform for others to exhibit their work too. She hopes the launch night will be equally lively as she said: “The music and poetry aspect was so much fun that this would play a big part [in Circus] too.”

 The artists that featured in Music & Love were Tinsel Edwards, Twinkle Troughton, Debi Treloar, Andrea Byrne, Peter Clarke, Tom Andrews, Richard Graville, Corinne Zak, Stephanie Zak, Graeme Duddridge and Laura Eyres.

The musicians on the launch night were P.E.S.T. featuring Santego, Nadine Wild-Palmer & Kate, poet Sarah Perry, poet Thomas R Andrews, Inigo & Aaran Bolders, Mudibu, Anna & Toby Humphreys and Zoe Zak.

Brixton East is currently hosting another independent art exhibition titled ‘American History X – Volume 1 The Death of America’. It will run 3-18 April and is free entry.