David Shenton: Kindly Ease The Tension

Curated by Ian Giles, this exhibition celebrates the life and work of Norwich-based artist, cartoonist and illustrator David Shenton (born 1949), one of Britain's foremost queer cartoonists. Since the 1970s Shenton's cartoons and comics have chronicled LGBTQ+ life and activism, appearing in publications including Gay News, The Guardian and Capital Gay, and confronting the social battles of their time — the AIDS crisis, Section 28 and the long campaign for same-sex marriage. His comic Stanley and the Mask of Mystery (1983) is regarded as one of the first LGBTQ+ graphic novels published in Europe, and his autobiographical collection Forty Lies (2023) was shortlisted for the Polari Book Prize. Alongside the drawings, the show brings together Shenton's textile and 'craftivism' work, including the Duvet of Love — a mosaic assembled from thousands of enamel badges showing two men embracing, made in memory of two of his Norwich friends who died of AIDS-related illness in the 1980s and now in the Norwich Castle collection — and knitted protest pieces such as the banner reading 'Kindly Ease the Tension' that gives the exhibition its title. A patron of Norwich Pride and Norwich Arts Centre, Shenton is a central figure in the city's LGBTQ+ cultural history, and the exhibition draws together decades of humour, tenderness and political conviction.