 In 2008, he returned to Auckland for a show at the ARTIS Gallery entitled "The Muriwai Paintings"; this was followed by a show at the Osborne Samuel Gallery and Lemon Street Gallery in London in 2011.A 2012 show entitled "And God cryed" at the Studio 3 Gallery in Kent was a critical success.Blackburn incorporates found objects and materials on his canvases, citing their "previous existence".