Ian Jackson is an artist based in Leeds, UK. His practice uses video, drawing, personal writings and sculpture to follow material processes. Artworks develop from collections of boundary objects - dislocated materials that become signifiers for wider physical shifts, cultural changes and personal decision making. His work is often collaborative, working across disciplines with other artists, makers, enthusiasts and researchers.
Recent works have stemmed from collecting fallen London Plane tree bark on walks across cities, taking architectural limestone reclaimed from the facade of a building back to the quarry at which it was originally mined, and repurposing zinc metal used in the industrial process of hot dip galvanisation to create sculpture. Each of Jackson's considered material investigations form interconnected parts of a whole practice that explores relationships between industry, landscapes and his own life spent making to reanimate everyday materials.
Education
2017-2018: PGCE in Lifelong Learning at Huddersfield University.
2010-2013: BA Hons Intermedia at Edinburgh College of Art .
2009-2010: Foundation at Leeds College of Art.
Bio
b. Pontefract, UK.
Lives and works in Leeds
Artist, lecturer, fabricator and gallery technician.
I have previously been a part time Lecturer on the foundation course at Leeds College of Art (now Leeds Arts University) specialising in Fine Art and Object and Spacial Design pathways (2017-2021). I have developed talks/teaching sessions for BA Fine Art Sculpture pathway at Leeds Arts University, BA Fine Art at the University of Leeds and British Higher School of Art and Design, Moscow. I have also produced engagement workshops and artist talks/events with galleries and artist led spaces such as Serf Leeds, East Bristol Contemporary, Henry Moore Institute libraries and Gerald Moore Gallery to engage public in both my artwork and wider research.
I have over 15 years experience as a freelance gallery technician and fabricator working with a wide variety of galleries, art festivals, museums and private clients. I am currently a Technical Manager for Leeds Museums and Galleries.
Exhibitions/Projects
2025 Sharp Edges, a group exhibition of new work with Bijan Amini-Alavijeh and Charlotte Saint Cullen, Threshold, Leeds
2023 Leeds Artists Show, Leeds Art Gallery
2023 On The House edition with Jill Mcknight, Serf, Leeds,
2022 Northern Formations, (publication with Corridor8) A collection of responses by writers and artists to the unusual proliferation of sculpture across the North, through history and in the present day.
2022 YSI Sculpture network artist
2022 Extruded Thoughts, Gerald Moore Gallery, London with Nathan Anthony & Jack Handscombe.
2022 Rhinoceros, Nathaniel Faulkner, Anna Hughes, Ian Jackson, Hannah Rowan, & Jessica Wetherly. Haarlem Artspace, Wirksworth.
2022 Routes North, Messums Harrogate, Harrogate.
2022 Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice Grant
2021 Material Matters, Sunny Bank Mills, Leeds. Group exhibition.
2021 Digital Crit Club : Spring 2021, EOP, Eastside projects.
2021 PANIC! steering group, Promoting an Artists' Network in the Crisis.
2020 The Tuesday Interview, British Higher School of Art and Design, Moscow. Part of a series of conversations between foundation fine art students and contemporary artists.
2020 Ekphriasis Vol#1: online interview and printed edition.
2020 a-n Bursaries: Time Space Money grant.
2020 EBC024with Hannah Rullmann and Joel Chima, East Bristol Contemporary, Bristol.
2020 The Art House commission, residency and group exhibition, The Art House, Wakefield.
2020 Spolia, (solo) Serf, Leeds.
Other meaningful projects
2019 The Desire to be Part of a Story... Even if it is Somebody Else’s, Yorkshire Hub, Index Festival, Leeds
2016-18 Somalgors 74, Switzerland. Project led by artist Curdin Tones building and developing a gallery and residency space in the mountain village of Tschlin.
2017 PLAN (duo), with Jenny West, blip blip blip gallery, Leeds.
2017 On The House (curatorial) with artist Jill Mcknight: a tailored talk, exhibition and meal, London.
2017 Affix, (duo) with Claire Baily, Losers Gym, Nottingham
2017 In Profile (solo), May Projects, London.
2016 Peel, Tear, Patch & Repair (duo) with Joshua Johnson, CBS gallery, Liverpool. Accompanying text by Joseph Hulme.
2016 Round The Houses (solo), Bloc Projects, Sheffield with STCFTHOTS gallery, Leeds .
2015 by and by, (duo) with Francis Lloyd-Jones, STCFTHOTS gallery, Leeds.
2015 Cascading Relevant Information, group show, CBS at Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool
2015 Curious Artifacts, group project at ArtWall, Athens.
2014 Residual Projects, South Square gallery, Bradford.
2014 SAY Art Commission (prize winner), Intermedia gallery, CCA, Glasgow.
2013 Within The Confines Of (solo), Talbot Rice gallery, Edinburgh.
2013 Ex, blip blip blip gallery, Leeds.
2013 ECA Degree show, Intermedia exhibition at Edinburgh College of Art
2013 A Thing To Go, The Old Ambulance Depot, Edinburgh
2013 Response, The Gallery, Flannels, Leeds
2012 Videoworks, Curated screening of artist works at Brass Monkey, Edinburgh.
2012 TransAntlantic, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh and, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
2012 Inaugural Pursuit, FLOSS Collective show, The Ambulance Depot, Edinburgh
2012 Doctrine of Signatures, group exhibition in association with Polarcap, West Barns studios.
2012 Interim, blip blip blip gallery, Leeds, selected by Pavel Buchler and Mary Griffiths