Illustration Cupboard, 22 Bury St, London, SW1Y 6AL

until 18 October 2014

Review by Juliet Harris

I would greatly recommend any fan of Australian illustrator Shaun Tan, or anybody with an interest in illustration, to visit the artist’s exhibition at the Illustration Cupboard before it closes on the 18th October 2014.

The exhibition shows a new collection of personal projects, such as the Head Series and original artwork from his various published projects. This is a unique opportunity to see Shaun Tan’s masterful use of mark making and colour, up close and at full scale. In this context the viewer can gain further appreciation of the skill and beauty of Tan’s pastel work.

My personal favourites in the show are the sculptural pieces, as I have not seen Tan’s work in this format before. The playful and surreal characters translate flawlessly into three dimensional pieces, creating a new platform for the artist’s work. These works are part of collaborative project with Phillip Pullman to illustrate Grimms Fairy Tales. For me it serves as an advocate for experimentation and the ongoing pursuit of evolving and pushing illustration to new limits.