If you’re struck by an overwhelming sense of déjà vu when entering Here Gallery this month, don’t rush to get your head examined – this is not the first time David Shillinglaw’s colourful chaos of mythological and human forms has exploded on to the walls of Stokes Croft’s small but perfectly formed art space. After his success last April exhibiting as part of the collective Them Lot, the London based illustrator and curator of the Nowhere North Gallery returns for a solo show every bit as exciting, fun and manic as the first.

If you’re still after mental examination, then you’ve come to the right place. Dumb Founded addresses the complex interaction between us and our environment and attempts to visually portray how living in this confusing world of ours forms our individual identities. David Bowie lyrics compete for attention with human figures in minotaur suits and the vast array of numbers and symbols would be a Bletchley Park code breaker’s wet dream. The cellar of the Here Gallery acts as the perfect setting for Shillinglaw’s doodle covered pieces as its cavernous depths imbue his work with the mysterious power of prehistoric cave paintings. Paint and pen spills from canvas onto walls as though the menagerie of symbols, numbers, words and characters have escaped from the confines of their frames.

Despite their often indecipherable meaning, each piece convincingly conveys the medley of ideas that run through the human imagination at any given point. These busy maps of consciousness are also aesthetically beautiful. Shillinglaw’s partiality to certain teal, turquoise and sunshine yellow hues as well as his use of scavenged newspapers, ‘No Smoking’ signs, books, doors and scraps of wood as canvases give his work the feel of a lovingly made child’s collage.

Despite his tendency towards the naïve – in his rendering of childlike sausage fingers for example – and the overwhelmingly chaotic, this exhibition also showcases Shillinglaw’s carefully crafted black and white illustrations. By using interlocking body parts that appear as though they’re straight out of a freakish biology textbook, larger beings are constructed, often complete with signature minotaur horns. Shillinglaw’s sense of humour and his characters’ charisma create mesmerising artworks whether in anarchic mixed-media or tidy ink.

Ultimately, as Shillinglaw well knows, the quest to define the human condition is not as easy as a straightforward painting, but his engaging pieces successfully portray just how complex, messy and surprisingly beautiful the concept of identity really is.

www.davidshillinglaw.co.uk