Russell Herron’s Cardboard Face Soup

Join us for the private view of ‘Russell Herron’s Cardboard Face Soup’ on July 17th from 6–9pm, where exclusive ‘opening-night-only’ works will be available at special prices. Expect goodie bags, postcards, stickers, pencils, balloons—and, of course, lots of cardboard! The show runs from July 18th to August 3rd, 2025. 

This July, BSMT Gallery in Dalston will be opening ‘Russell Herron’s Cardboard Face Soup’, a striking solo exhibition by award-winning British artist Russell Herron. Known for his hyper-realistic drawings of cardboard portraits, Herron pushes the boundaries of identity and self-representation in a bold new body of work created especially for this show. Having garnered recognition and acclaim within the Art World with selections at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the ING Discerning Eye, and the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, Herron now turns his gaze inward. 

A new series of eight large, coloured pencil drawings, enigmatically titled as self-portraits, dares the viewer to question authorship and subject. Are they really him? Or are they us– generically? But the centrepiece is something truly unique. For the first time, Herron reveals a monumental multi-piece work: 132 cast jesmonite cardboard faces, each one painted in a colour from Farrow & Ball’s 2024 signature colour palette. A grid of identity, design, and the controlled act of replication, this work explores materiality and the shifting mask of the self. Alongside these, visitors will find a series of smaller portraits– both in colour and black and white and a suite of experimental pieces that play with form and participation: a drawing that changes daily; a drawing that needs scanning on a phone to access the content; and a work that uses the gallery owners themselves. Herron’s work contemplates portraiture, identity, location, history and loss– all filtered through his medium of choice: the humble and ordinary cardboard. 

As the artist puts it: “All art is in some way a self-portrait. That’s what artists do. You can’t escape from who you are. Even if I’m making a drawing of you, it’s still about me,” Russell Herron IG: @bsmtspace // @russell_herron_art