The Specials’ bassist returns to his love of painting.

Horace Panter picked up his brushes again when the two tone legends reunited in 2008, and now his latest series of canvases is going on show in London. ‘The Art of the Mixtape’ showcases Panter’s outsize paintings of mixtapes and demo cassettes, celebrating the objects themselves as well as the cultural and historical context of seminal albums and the studios where they were made.

“Demo cassettes often contained the bare bones of songs that went on to become classic pop hits but they were essentially disposable things. I often used to tape over them, making them into my own mixtapes,” says Panter, whose work references artists like Andy Warhol, Peter Blake and Wayne Thiebaud. He’s previously explored the American cityscape in his work, which has been exhibited in London and Singapore.

The exhibition is on at The Proud Archivist in East London from May 19 to June 30.