Jessie Brennan (b. 1982, Plymouth) lives and works in London/Devon, UK.
Education/Training:
2008 – 2009
Centre for Learning and Teaching in Art & Design (CLTAD): Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching
2005 – 2007
Royal College of Art, London: MA Printmaking (Distinction in Critical and Historical Studies)
2001 – 2004
Cardiff School of Art & Design, UWIC: BA (hons) Fine Art (First Class)
2000 – 2001
University College Falmouth: Diploma in Foundation Studies Art & Design (Distinction)
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2017 Re: development - Inside The Green Backyard, a collaborative networked exhibition, Carroll/Fletcher Onscreen
2016 If This Were to Be Lost, dalla Rosa Gallery, London, UK
2015 Regeneration! HS Projects, London, UK
2013 Adrift on Life’s Tides, Rochester Art Gallery, Kent, UK
2012 Cities & Eyes, Marian Cramer Projects, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Selected Commissioned Projects:
2023 UNBUILD: a site of possibility, Drawing Room, London
2018–20 Royal Docks Public Art Commission, UP Projects, UK
2017 YOUR WORDS, inaugural project for Open Plan, South London Gallery, UK
2015–16 Inside The Green Backyard (Opportunity Area), Metal, Peterborough, UK
2010–12 Everything Meets Here, Art on the Underground, London, UK
2010–11 The Cut, SPACE, London, UK
Publications (author):
Jessie Brennan, Re: development: Voices, Cyanotypes & Writings from The Green Backyard (London: Silent Grid, 2016)
Jessie Brennan, REGENERATION! Conversations, Drawings, Archives & Photographs from Robin Hood Gardens (London: Silent Grid, 2015)
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2023 UNBUILD: a site of possibility, Drawing Room, London
2021 Les Territoires de l’eau, Musée du Quai Branly, France
2020 The building of 100 names, curated by Alan Dunn for East Street Arts, Leeds, UK
2018 Editions, South London Gallery at Frieze London, UK
2017 Drawing Biennial 2017, Drawing Room, London, UK
2016 KALEID 2016, Oslo, Norway
2016 John Ruskin Prize 2015, The New Art Gallery Walsall, UK
2015 Contemporary British Drawing, XAFA - Xi'an Academy of Fine Art, China
2015 Creekside Open 2015 Selected by Richard Deacon, APT Gallery, London, UK
2014 – 2015 Hoarding, City Gallery, Peterborough, UK
2014 Contemporary Talents 2012, François Schneider Foundation, France
2014 Westenwind, Martin Kudlek Gallery, Germany (curated by Stef Van Bellingen)
2014 Progress, The Foundling Museum, London, UK
2013 Coup de Ville, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
2013 The Big Bamboozle, Camden Arts Centre, London, UK
2012 Celeste Prize 2012, Centrale Montemartini, Rome, Italy
2011–12 Jerwood Drawing Prize 2011, Jerwood Space, London (and UK tour)
2011 SPACE Satellite Projects: The Cut (with Chris Dorley-Brown and Daniel Lehan), SPACE, London, UK
2010 And Then Again, Lisbon City Museum, Portugal
2009 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
2008 10, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2007 The Great Exhibition, MA Graduate Show, Royal College of Art, London, UK
Publications (contributor):
Oliver Elser, Philip Kurz, and Peter Cachola Schmal, eds. Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, SOS Brutalism: A Global Survey [exhib. cat.] (Zurich: Park Books, 2017)
Laura Allen and Luke Pearson, eds. Drawing Futures (London: UCL Press, 2016)
Conferences/Symposia/Panel Discussions:
2022 ‘State of the Legacy: Interrogating a Decade of ‘Olympic Regeneration’’, UCL Urban Laboratory, UCL Institute for Global Prosperity, Cardiff University, Oxford Brookes University and the University of East London (12-13 September 2022)
2019 ‘Aesthetics of Gentrification: Art, Architecture, and Displacement’, International Conference, University of Oregon, USA (5-6 April 2019)
2017 'Visualising the fight for home and security: Revealing injustice and making change', RC21 Conference (11-13 September 2017)
2017 'Doing Architectural Research: socio-political perspectives on theories, methodologies & praxis', University of Cambridge (workshop, 26 June 2017)
2017 'Voicing Experience: The 4th British Conference of Autoethnography', Department of Sociology, University of Sussex (15-16 June 2017)
2017 'Future Passé', V&A (conference, 2 June 2017)
2017 'Urban Planning as Social Cleansing', Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (panel discussion, 17 May 2017)
2017 'Concrete Utopias: Metaphor and Material', Bluecoat, Liverpool (symposium, 12 May 2017)
2017 'Sound of Memory Symposium: Sound-track / Sound-scape', The Whitechapel Gallery, London (23 April 2017)
2017 'Beyond Words', International Conference, Plymouth University (14-15 March 2017)
2017 'Brutalism Redux: Resuscitating the urban politics of brutalist architecture', RHUL Centre for GeoHumanities (panel discussion, 27 January 2017)
2016 'Drawing Futures', The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL (conference, 10 & 11 November 2016)
2016 'Forgotten Estates', Royal Academy of Arts (panel discussion, 26 September 2016)
2015 'New Engagements with Architecture', ICAM-UKI Symposium, V&A + RIBA Architecture Partnership (13 November 2015)
2015 'The Case of Robin Hood Gardens', Urban Laboratory, UCL (seminar, 22 June 2015)
Selected Awards/Funding:
2023 RKEI Research Development Fund, Royal College of Art
2022 Research Costs Fund, Royal College of Art
2016 Visiting Research Fellow, The Bartlett, UCL
2016 John Ruskin Prize 2015, Second Prize Winner, The Big Draw
2015-16 Grants for the Arts, Arts Council England, UK
2013 Artist’s International Development Fund, Arts Council England / British Council
2012 Contemporary Talents 2012, Winner (Drawing Category), François Schneider Foundation, France
2011 Jerwood Drawing Prize 2011, Second Prize Winner, Jerwood Foundation, London
2010 Grundtvig Visits and Exchanges Award, ECORYS, Birmingham
2007 Augustus Martin Prize, Royal College of Art, London
2006 Leverhulme Trust Bursary, The Leverhulme Trust, UK
Residencies:
2024 Studio 459 Residency, Tomar, Portugal
2015-16 Time and Space Residency, Metal Peterborough, UK
2013 LV21 Light Vessel, Gillingham, Kent, UK
2011 Artist Residency, CPS - Centro Português de Serigrafia, Portugal
2010 WARP Artists' Village, WARP Contemporary Art Platform, Belgium
2010 Visiting Artist, St Michael’s Printshop, Newfoundland
2004 International Plein-Air, V.K. Jonynas Gallery, Druskininkai, Lithuania
Collections:
2016 Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
2016 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, USA
2016 Oslo National Academy of the Arts Library, Norway
2016 SAIC Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, Chicago, USA
2016 Rhode Island School of Art and Design, USA
2016 Chelsea School of Art, UAL, UK
2012 François Schneider Foundation, Wattwiller, France
2002– Private collections
Press:
2017 Matthew Thompson, 'Jessie Brennan (ed), Re:development: Voices, Cyanotypes and Writings from the Green Backyard, London: Silent Grid, 2016', Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, 18 April 2017
2017 Oli Mould, 'Jessie Brennan, Regeneration! Conversations, Drawings, Archives & Photographs from Robin Hood Gardens', Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, 6 January 2017
2016 Jessie Brennan, ‘Saving Peterborough’s Green Backyard: 'It's a point of stillness in a crazy world', The Guardian, 3 November 2016
2016 Chris Sharratt, ‘Art Brut: Will brutalism’s greatest legacy be its influence on artists?’, Frieze, 6 April 2016
2016 Chris Fite-Wassilak, ‘Jessie Brennan: Regeneration! Nathan Coley: to the Bramley Family of Frestonia’, Art Monthly, Issue 393, February 2016
2016 Chris Fite-Wassilak, Alex Fletcher and Maria Walsh, ‘Art Monthly Events’, Resonance FM, 8 February 2016
2016 Richard Martin, ‘Regeneration! On the art of Jessie Brennan, Docomomo UK, 2 May 2016
2016 Colin Wiles, ‘A tale of two brutalist housing estates: one thriving, one facing demolition’, The Guardian, 13 January 2016
2015 Jessie Brennan, ‘Robin Hood Gardens: “They're driving us away to replace us with wealthy people”', ICON Magazine, 30 November 2015
2015 Chris Sharratt, ‘Brutalist truth: Robin Hood Gardens and the politics of regeneration’, AN, 12 November 2015
2015 Flora Neville, ‘A swansong for Robin Hood Gardens’, Architects' Journal, 23 October 2015
2015 Jessie Brennan, ‘Robin Hood Gardens and the politics of regeneration’, Apollo Magazine, 11 August 2015
2014 BBC Radio 4 Front Row, interview with Caro Howell and Jessie Brennan by John Wilson, 5 June 2014
2014 BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking, interview with Caro Howell and Jessie Brennan by Matthew Sweet, 3 June 2014
2014 Jenny Uglow, ‘Booze, whores and high living – a modern take on Hogarth’s Rake’, The Guardian, 6 June 2014
2014 Jackie Wullschlager, ‘Progress’, Financial Times, 1 June 2014
2014 Alastair Smart, ‘Would Hogarth have voted Ukip?’, The Telegraph, 8 June 2014
2014 Ben Luke, ‘Jessie Brennan on new show Progress at The Foundling Museum’, Evening Standard, 3 June 2014
2014 Michaela Nettell, ‘A response to Hogarth: “I’m thinking about progress as a concept”, AN, 3 June 2014
2014 Ruth Wilbur, ‘Artist of the Month’, Axisweb, 1 July 2014
2014 Julia Langbein, ‘Progress, critics’ picks’, Artforum, 6 June 2014
2014 Tim Arthur, with Jessie Brennan, BBC London 94.9 Robert Elms, 27 May 2014
Current Employment:
2022– Royal College of Art: Tutor (Research), MA Visual Communication
Recent Employment:
2019 Goldsmiths: invited speaker, BA Sociology (15 March 2019)
2018–2020 University of Gloucestershire: Lecturer in Fine Art
2018 King's College London: Visiting Lecturer, MA Cultural and Creative Industries (16 March 2018)
2018 Royal College of Art: Visiting Lecturer, MA Visual Communication (8 March 2018 & 30 November 2017)
2018 University of East London: Visiting Lecturer, MRes Architecture (Reading the Neoliberal City) (28 February 2018 & 17 January 2017)
2018–2022 Royal College of Art: Visiting Tutor, MA Visual Communication
2017 University of Sussex: guest speaker, Department of Geography Research Seminar (23 November 2017)
2017 School of Architecture, The Bartlett, UCL: Visiting Lecturer, MA Situated Practice (10 October 2017, 10 January - 23 March 2018)
2017 ACME Artist Housing Programme, panel member, Glassyard (22 & 23 June 2017)
2017 University of Northampton: invited speaker, Subject Futures Week (26 January 2017)
2017 West Dean College: Public Lecture (25 January 2017)
2017 Arts University Bournemouth: Visiting Lecturer, MA Architecture (13 January 2017)
2016 King's College London: Visiting Lecturer, MA Cultural and Creative Industries (2 December 2016)
2016 University of Plymouth: Visiting Lecturer, BA Fine Art (15 & 16 November 2016)
2016 Winchester School of Art: Visiting Lecturer, MA Fine Art (4 November 2016)
2016 School of Architecture, The Bartlett, UCL: Visiting Lecturer, MA Architectural History (4 & 25 February 2016)
2016 Department of Urban Studies and Planning, University of Sheffield: Visiting Lecturer (1 February 2016)
2016 Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, Lancaster University: Visiting Lecturer, BA Fine Art (26 January 2016)
2015 Norwich University of the Arts: Visiting Lecturer, BA Fine Art (11 December 2015)
2015 WARP / Bruges Triennial, Belgium: Commentator, Artist Village 2015
2013 – 2015 Falmouth University: Visiting Lecturer, BA Drawing
2012 – 2013 University of Plymouth: Visiting Lecturer, BA Education Studies
2012 – 2018 Royal College of Art: Project Coordinator, ReachOutRCA
2011 – 2018 University of Gloucestershire: Associate Academic, BA Fine Art
2011 – 2015 University for the Creative Arts, Epsom: Visiting Lecturer, BA Fashion Promotion & Imaging
2009 – 2013 Camden Arts Centre: Lead Artist for Insights
2008 – 2010 University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury: Sessional Lecturer, BA Fine Art
2007 – 2009 Thames Valley University: Lecturer Foundation Studies in Art & Design