These Corroded Poems

A solo exhibition by Joseph Loughborough

Thursday 19 June 2025, 6–9pm
The exhibition continues untll Saturday 12th July.

In his most ambitious series to date, Joseph Loughborough invites us into a world shaped by salt, myth, and allegory. Inspired by Samuel Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, these compelling new works reimagine the sea as a psychological space—where each drawing unfolds like a weathered poem, layered with traces of guilt, endurance, and transformation.

Loughborough’s distinctive style—bold, fractured lines and instinctive, expressive gestures—gives his figures a striking emotional presence. They appear caught in moments of quiet ritual: steering, waiting, watching. Their faces bear the marks of time and resolve. Their garments are inscribed with symbolic geometry, evoking both wreckage and armour.

Birds loom large, drawn with both menace and grace. In Loughborough’s hands, they become more than animals; they act as omens, companions, or silent judges. Elsewhere, fish drift like offerings, and skies glow with gold leaf—suspended somewhere between the sacred and the indifferent.

While the visual language feels mythic, even timeless, these are not traditional fables. They are portraits of endurance. Of reckoning. Of life lived at the edge of the world and the self. Loughborough invites us not to interpret, but to witness.

As with all great allegories, the sea here is never just the sea. It is psyche. It is theatre. It is a stage to watch existence unfold.

Whether you’re a seasoned collector or discovering his work for the first time, this is a rare opportunity to experience an artist at full force.