About
Jess Blandford (b.1973) is a British artist living and working in South East London.
My practice is focused on abstract drawing and painting, having studied painting at Camberwell and printmaking at the Royal College.
I have always been preoccupied with domestic spaces, flawed structures and notions of perfection. But since having children, my work has become concerned with finding ways to make visible the invisible work that holds family life together. I’m interested in celebrating the small, mundane, messy, complex, repetitive acts that are essential (but often unnoticed) foundations of domestic life. They are rarely seen as a worthy subject for Fine Art, but are nonetheless valuable.
I use repetitive lines, hidden layers of colour, varied mark making, fragments and erasures, to celebrate the everyday acts of love, and the complex ‘mental, physical and emotional load’, that is involved in raising a family and keeping us all connected.
I am one of the resident artists in the studios at Beckenham Place Mansion. www.beckenhamplace.org.
I’m part of a women’s art collective called FOLD.
I was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2023 and 2024.
You can follow my work on INSTAGRAM @jessblandford
EDUCATION
2024-25: Turps Correspondence Course
2022-23: Advanced Painting, Morley College
2010-11: Studying for MA in Printmaking, Royal College of Art
2006-09: BA Hons Painting (1st Class), Camberwell College of Art UAL
2005-06: Foundation (Distinction), Chelsea College of Art UAL
1992-95: BA Hons English (2:1), Newcastle University
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
(UN)VISIBLE by FOLD Art Collective (Sept 2024), Safehouse 1, Peckham
RA Summer Exhibition (2024), Royal Academy of Arts, London
Layers of Being (December 2023), Safehouse 2, Peckham, London
In Conversation (November 2023), Jeannie Avent Gallery, London
Women in Art Fair (October 2023), Mall Galleries, London
RA Summer Exhibition (2023), Royal Academy of Arts, London
Beyond the Palette (June 2023), Barry Till Gallery, Morley College
Winter Open (December 2022), Southwark Park Gallery
Made in Peckham (Sept 2022), Gallery AG.1, Bussey Building, Peckham.
Made Part II Drawing Painting & Ceramics (May 2022), Morley Gallery.
Open Studios (twice a year, 2021-23), Beckenham Place Mansion.
Secret Charter (2018), Dulwich Picture Gallery. Exhibition and postcard auction.
Artist Open House, Dulwich Festival (May 2012, 2013 & 2018).
RCA Interim Show (May 2012), Royal College of Art, Printmaking
I Took the Lift to the Sixth Floor (April 2012), Lake Gallery Southwark Park. RCA Printmaking students group show.
Paralexis (Nov 2010), Garden Market Pop-Up Gallery, Bermondsey.
Q-Art Presents… (Sept 2010), APT Gallery, Deptford. Group exhibition of works from artists who participated in the Q-Art programme of talks.
UAL Degree Show (June 2009), Camberwell College of Art. Painting.
Camberwell Fine Art Interim Show (June 2008), Unit 13 Warehouse, Peckham
public works
Fluorescent Yellow Room (March 2010), Market Estate Project, London. One of 30 installations created at the Market Estate before demolition. Co-created with Joe Morris.
Bunting (July 2010), Liverpool Road Estate, London. Community Engagement textile project as part of the estate’s centenary celebrations.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Artist Open House, Dulwich Festival (14-15 May 2022).
Lineation (1 Dec-31 Jan 2020) Crypt of St Mary-le-Bow church
(Un)Tethered (Feb 2019), Copper Beech at JAGs Dulwich.
publicATIONs
Procreate Project Archive (Dec 2015), Photozine and installation at Goldsmith’s Woman’s Art Library.
Fluorescent Yellow Room (March 2010), featured in The Guardian, The Independent, and Dazed & Confused online.