Jo Brocklehurst and The Jo Brocklehurst Prize
Jo Brocklehurst is an artist of amazing talent, who was born to draw . She was compelled to draw on a daily basis and she has left us with an amazing record of the social history of the 1970’s - 2000’s.
She is best known for the Punk drawings she made of the occupants of a squat close to where she lived in West Hampstead . These images were exhibited in London , Amsterdam and New York and have become iconic, highly sought after works that visually articulate the subversion of the time . But Jo spent a period of time in New York drawing those frequenting the night clubs and capturing them using fluorescent pens to enable her to see her mark making in the dark surroundings . She used the same technique in England when she became a regular at Torture Garden in the early days of the fetish club scene , where she was to be found in the corner of the club with her drawing paraphernalia capturing the fashion students in their recent creations . This has become an iconic record of the time and Jo Brocklehurst is starting to become known to the wider collecting fraternity .
By way of recognition for the amazing work that Jo produced we here at Blondes Fine Art are proud to support Central St Martins in London by funding a prize in the name of Jo Brocklehurst
We are delighted to confirm the inaugural winner of the Jo Brocklehurst prize for 2021 is Maryam ADAM . Programme Director for Graphic Communication Design, Rebecca Ross, chose Maryam for the following reasons:
The panel of academic staff felt that Maryam’s Unit 10 projects, “From My Mother’s Hands” and “Where Are You Really from?” demonstrated an exciting present-day development of Brocklehurst’s interest in identity, and counter-culture, particularly for the way Maryam used the exploration of Gujarati craft-based processes to challenge dominant hierarchies and narratives of South Asian craft. Brocklehurst’s interest in subversion is seen in the way Maryam has recorded and illustrated environments and personal stories which encourage people to question Design boundaries and challenge empires.You can take a look at Maryam’s graduating work here in the online showcase:
We hope to be able to exhibit Jo’s work in the coming years and while the last 2 years have proved challenging to us all we are determined to continue to highlight the work of the great artist .
We are also interested in purchasing work by Jo Brocklehurst so do contact us is you are considering selling .
Mark & Melanie
Blondes Fine Art