lewdjaw(at)gmail.com
Jack Lewdjaw (b.1990 Loughborough) is an artist and educator who lives and works in Birmingham. He is Co-Director of the gallery east bristol contemporary, Director of the alternative arts education project Day School, and a Lecturer at Birmingham School of Art. He was also a participant of Syllabus V: a peer-led alternative learning programme run in partnership with Wysing Arts Centre, Eastside Projects, Spike Island, The Newbridge Project, Iniva, and S1 Artspace .
Selected exhibitions include: To Live a Thousand Years in One Poem, Gallery 36, Newcastle (2023), The Age of Dreamers is Over, Grand Union, Birmingham (2022), MAD as MAP, News of the World, London (2019), Open/Closed, SERF, Leeds (2018), East Midlands Today, Two Queens, Leicester (2017), eeeeeeeee, CBS Gallery, Liverpool (2017), Future Late, Tate Modern, London (2016), Platform, Modern Art Oxford (2013).
His work is influenced by approaches developed whilst working as a graphic designer, which he adopts to inform design-led methodologies for working and approaches around colour palette, composition, and type. He frequently sets himself briefs when working, encouraging formal and spatial limitations to emerge. Jack’s work embraces the themes of decay, ruination, and the architecture of public space (particularly the vernacular design of shop fronts), where there is a tension between thematics and materials used. His works have often been described as anachronistic, operating in an uneasy historical space of reference points and projected futures.
Interview on YAC with Jaf Yusuf (April 2020)
Exhibitions
2024
Members' Show, Outpost, Norwich
2023
Artists Supporting Artists, Piccalilli, London
Members' Show, Bloc Projects, Sheffield
To Live a Thousand Years in One Poem, 36 Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne (Solo)
Two Queens Two Screens 2, Two Queens, Leicester
2022
Scarf Show, OOF Gallery, London
Open Screen, Seesaw (Castlefield Gallery), Manchester
The Age of Dreamers is Over, Grand Union, Birmingham
Holburne Open, The Edge Andrew Brownsword Gallery/Holburne Museum, Bath
2021
Photocopies, Recent Activity, Birmingham
2020
Artworks Open, Barbican Arts Trust, London (Selected By Alex Schady And Michelle Williams Gamaker)
Slugfund, Slugtown, Newcastle 2019
Happy Place, 24 Hour Window, Glasgow
MAD As MAP, News Of The World, London
BF Artist Film Festival IX, Graft, Lancaster & Set, London
Screening Digbeth First Friday, Cheap Cheap Gallery, Birmingham
2018
Open, Ty Pawb, Wrexham
Open/Closed, SERF, Leeds (Solo)
2017
it's ok, Spike Island Testspace, Bristol (Solo)
A Show, About the Show, Scaffold Gallery, Manchester
East Midlands Today, Two Queens, Leicester
Nawki,12o Collective Screening, Focal Point Gallery (Southend) Eastside Projects (Birmingham) SERF, Spur, (Leeds) CBS Gallery (Liverpool) ebc,(Bristol) Hutt Collective (Nottingham) Ladette Space, Limbo, The White Pube (London)
Is This Real Lyf?? Iouae, Newcastle Upon Tyne
#Supercommunity Dyson Gallery RCA, London
1:15, Is This It?, Online
eeeeeeeee, CBS Gallery, Liverpool (Duo with Karanjit Panesar)
2013-2016
Artlicks Weekend ebc Bomb Factory Takeover, The Bomb Factory, London
Future Late, Tate Modern, London
Yellow Back Books 1, Artist Book Shop, Cardiff
Lockjaws*, Situations, Bristol & Bath Art Weekender, Trinity Centre, Bristol
B - Artists' Book Fair, G39, Cardiff
Summer Cinema Screening, Surface Gallery, Nottingham
Azerty Text Launch, Bibliotheque Lycée Jean Puy, Roanne, FR
Platform, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford
Sentenced, Old Police Station, London
Political Posters, Portman Gallery, London
It's Us, It's Us! Motorcycle Showroom, Bristol
The Future Of Things Past, Museum of English Rural Life, Reading
Teaching & Mentoring
Lecturer Fine Art Birmingham School of Art 2024 - Present
Director Day School 2017 - Present
Schools Programmer & Coordinator ebc Schools 2017 - 2024
Lecturer Fine Art Bristol School of Art 2020 - 2024
Education Programme Artist Workshops Arnolfini, Bristol 2018 - 2020
Course Lecturer & Leader University Of Bristol (FAS) 2016 - 2019
Visiting Lecturer UWE (Bristol), University of Reading, Swindon College, University of the Arts London, University of Lancaster, University of Gloucestershire (Curatorial Futures Symposium 2019), University of Falmouth, Supersonic Lisbon
Mentoring Artquest, Jerwood Arts, Flatland Projects, Press Play, Newbridge Project
Residencies
Holburne Open, The Edge Andrew Brownsword Gallery, Bath 2022
Iouae Inhabit Iouae, Online Residency 2017
Pre-Fab Lab, Bath 2016
Jamboree Plymouth Art Centre, Plymouth 2015
Publications
GHHH, Issue 2
Schedule, Artlicks Issue 27 (Co-Editor)
YAC Interview, Young Artists In Conversation Online (with Jaf Yusuf)
The Ultras Interviews, Eastside Projects, Birmingham
Peripheries, Artlicks Issue 23
Rung, Issue 1
Laugh, Issue 3
Lockjaws*, Issue 1
Azerty, Absc_Nd_Flux_2015, Vanda Project Online
Education
Syllabus V Wysing Cambridge, Iniva London, Eastside Projects Birmingham, Newbridge Project Newcastle, S1 Artspace Sheffield, Spike Island Bristol 2019 - 2020
University of Falmouth PGCHE (Higher Education) 2018 - 2019
University of Reading Fine Art BA 2009 - 2013
Open University Digital Photography 2008
Awards & Commissions
UK New Artist of the Year 2023 (Longlisted)
Gane Trust Grant 2023
A-N Bursaries Time Space Money 2022
15th Anniversary Commissioned Edition Outpost, Norwich
2019 The Forum Architectural and Interior Design Grand Union, Birmingham 2019 (Shortlisted)
Transition Newlyn Art Gallery 2016 (Shortlisted)
Connect! CVAN 2016 (Shortlisted)
Go & See Travel Bursary Berlin Biennial Visual Arts South West 2016
Platform Award CVAN 2013 (First Round)