Artist profile
Painter Vanessa Jackson RA studied at St Martins School of Art from 1971 to 1975, and at the Royal College of Art from 1975 to 1978. She was president of the New Contemporaries in 1975 and since her first solo show at the Air Gallery, London in 1981 she has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad.
Jackson has exhibited internationally, in shows from Botswana to Bergen, New York to Tokyo. Solo exhibitions have been held at Art Inc in New York, Marcelle Joseph Projects, Keith Talent Gallery and Studio 1.1, Café Gallery Projects at Southwark Park and at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, where she was commissioned to create a 10 metre wall painting.
Her prolific teaching career has seen her serve as Head of Painting at Winchester School of Art for nine years, as MA and Research Tutor at the Royal College of Art for 14 years and as Senior Tutor here at the RA Schools for 15 years, until 2013.
Jackson’s work is known for her use of geometry and its three dimensional qualities to deny the apparent flatness of space. The ornamental and optical play of colour in her work serves to both confirm and confuse our sense of perception, constantly shifting between concrete presence and the ambiguity of space beyond the viewer’s grasp.
Photo: Ann Gollifer
