Kurt Jackson: Place at Victoria Art Gallery

Acclaimed British artist Kurt Jackson has collaborated with a diverse group of contemporary writers for his latest exhibition, and accompanying book, Place. The show opens at the Bath & North East Somerset Council-run Victoria Art Gallery on October 10th.

Each writer was asked to contribute text about their favourite location in Britain. Jackson then visited each location – including Worthy Farm (Glastonbury Festival), Bristol docks and Bath, as well as islands, mountains, Spaghetti Junction, suburbs, beaches, Paddington Station and a Welsh estuary – to create works for the show. The exhibition will feature each writer’s text alongside Jackson’s response to their chosen location.

Kurt Jackson said: “Over the last 30 years as my working practice has evolved, I have become more and more conscious that I need a reason for visiting a location for my work to happen there. For this project, I turned my normal methods upside down and looked for a way to relinquish control and to funnel new sources into my working practice. I decided to ask other people for their own choice of a preferred location, with them choosing where to ‘send’ me to make work at their own personal place within Britain.”

Councillor Patrick Anketell-Jones (Conservative, Lansdown), the Council’s Cabinet Member for Economic Development, said: “This exhibition gives a fascinating view of Britain, including Bath and the surrounding areas, through the eyes of Kurt Jackson and an eclectic array of writers. Bath & North East Somerset residents will be able to see the exhibition for free when they show a Discovery Card.”

Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis is one of the 32 writers who have contributed text to the show. He will open the exhibition for Jackson, who is also the Glastonbury Festival Artist in Residence. Among the other contributors are charity directors, musicians, professors, journalists, authors and poets. To complement the main exhibition, a group of smaller paintings of Glastonbury has been specially selected by Jackson  and will be offered for sale in support of Greenpeace, of which he is a long-time supporter.

Jackson works with paint, mixed media, sculpture, printmaking and film, and the idea of ‘place’ has always been essential to his working practice. The Victoria Art Gallery has hosted two Kurt Jackson exhibitions over the past 10 years: ‘Two Woods’ and ‘River Avon’.

For further information contact www.kurtjackson.com