When it comes to helping those impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, no effort is too small. A prodigious eight-year-old British artist named Rollo Jensen has launched (with the help of his dad) an online exhibition of works in the style of artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Gerhard Richter, Banksy and Tracey Emin to raise money for foodbanks offering provisions to underserved communities unduly affected by Covid-19.
“It is very sad that there are people who are not able to afford food, and coronavirus has made this worse because lots of people have lost their jobs,” Jensen, or his dad, writes. “If you have food in your cupboards and spare change in your pocket, please stand with me to help those less fortunate.”
Some highlights of the show include a painting inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat scrawled with the words “When will this end”, “Drink bleach” and “NHS”, and a Keith Haring-inspired painting of two dogs practicing 2 metres of social distancing. Using the fundraising website JustGiving, Jensen has already exceeded his target of raising £1,000 for the Trussell Trust, a nationwide network of food banks that provides emergency support for people in poverty and that campaigns for long-term change.