CV

Education: MA Photographic Studies, University of Westminster, (2010); Drama Studio London (1997); BA English, Durham University (1996). 

Galleries: The Print Sales Gallery @ The Photographers’ Gallery, London and Anzenberger Gallery, Vienna. 

Public Collections:

  • Unique work held in permanent collection of Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, US.
  • Selected prints from ‘Conversations with my mother’ held in Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol, UK
  • Permanent Collection of NHS, UK
  • ‘Conversations with my mother’ Artist Book is held in ‘Rare Books and Manuscripts’, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, US; ‘Tate Britain Library’, Tate Britain, London, UK, ‘National Art Library’ at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK and the ‘Hirsch Library’, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, US

Commissions

    • 2024 Bristol Photography Festival, Co-Stitch Project & Brigstow Research Institute
    • 2022 – Wellcome Collection: What is Violence? Digital Stories
    • 2020 – Wellcome Collection: Reframing Sex Work Digital Stories.

          Performance talks

          • 2017 – The Freud Museum conference on ‘Mourning and Melancholia’: Conversations with my mother as a monologue
          • 2016 – Redeye, Hothouse, Conversations with my mother 

          Awards

          • 2024 – Gane Trust
          • 2023 – Oppenheim-John Downes Trust
          • 2023 – RWA Academician
          • 2021 – Arts Council England: DYCP Award
          • 2020 – Arts Council England: Emergency Response Grant
          • 2020 – a-n The Artist Information Company: Artist Bursary (for Fencing Manual for Women project)
          • 2019 – QEST scholarship for Certificate Historical Hand Embroidery, Royal School of Needlework 
          • 2017 – GRAIN Portfolio Award, FORMAT Festival (for Fencing Manual for Women project) – winner
          • 2016 – Short-listed for Jerwood Open Makers Award 
          • 2016 – a-n The Artist Information Company: Travel Bursary
          • 2013 – Genesis Imaging Award, Format Festival – winner
          • 2004 – Arts Council of Wales Project Grant: An Important View

          Solo exhibitions

          • 2021 – Bristol Museum and Art Gallery “Beyond the frame” – intervention in main collection as part of Bristol Photography Festival: A sense of place
          • 2019 – Print Sales Gallery, The Photographers’ Gallery, London: Constellations and Coordinates
          • 2017 – Birmingham City University (School of Jewellery), Armour Studies (regarding skin) 
          • 2005 – Oriel Queens Hall Gallery, Pembrokeshire,  An Important View 

          Selected group exhibitions

          • 2024-25 – Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood – Hayward Touring show, curated by Hettie Judah – currently Birmingham MAC. Next, Millennium Gallery, Sheffield (Oct ’24)
          • 2024 – RWA, 171st Open, Bristol: exhibiting as Academician
          • 2023 – Flowers Gallery, Small is Beautiful (41st Edition) London
          • 2023 – RWA, Academician Candidate Show, Bristol
          • 2023 – UNIT, Re-Naissance [online] London
          • 2023 – Serchia M(Other), Bristol
          • 2023 – RWA Photography Open, Bristol
          • 2021 – Print Sales / The Photographers’ Gallery [online] The Trapeze Artist, London
          • 2019 – Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool: 209 Women
          • 2018 – Portcullis House, 209 Women, London
          • 2018 – Mall Galleries, ING Discerning Eye; (Invited artist), London
          • 2018 – Anzenberger Gallery Handmade IV, Vienna
          • 2018 – Print Sales Gallery at The Photographers’ Gallery, Work in Process, London
          • 2017 –  A Decade of Gifts and Acquisitions Yale Center for British Art, New Haven
          • 2017 – The Barge House, London: FIX Photo Festival
          • 2017 – RWA, 164th Open. Bristol
          • 2016 – Salisbury Arts Centre, Threads, Salisbury
          • 2016 – Anzenberger Gallery, Handmade III Vienna
          • 2016 – Waterperry Gardens, Art in Action, Oxford
          • 2016 – Gazebook, Sicily
          • 2016 – Photobook Bristol First Books
          • 2014 – The Mall Galleries, ING Discerning Eye, London
          • 2013 – RWA, 161st Open, Bristol

          Residencies

          • 2023 – DOMUS Residency, Galatina, IT
          • 2024 – Hosking Houses Trust, UK

          Art Fairs | Other

          • 2022 – Magnum Square Print Sale
          • 2022 – Collect, London (QEST)
          • 2021 – Photo London (The Photographers’ Gallery)
          • 2019 – Photo London (The Photographers’ Gallery)
          • 2018 – UNSEEN Amsterdam (The Photographers’ Gallery) and Photo London (The Photographers’ Gallery)
          • 2018 – Photo London (The Photographers’ Gallery)
          • 2017 – Parallel Vienna (Anzenberger Gallery)

          Press | publications

          • 2024 – Burlington Contemporary – Review: Millie Walton – Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood
          • 2024 – Independent – Interview, Chloe Ashby – The Women Breaking Down Art’s Final Taboo: Motherhood
          • 2024 – i – Hettie Judah – Why is art about motherhood still taboo?
          • 2022 – Darklight Art – Radical Softness -Interview with Mimi Gray
          • 2021 – Photomonitor – Making things to make people feel things – Interview with Shyama Laxman
          • 2021 – British Journal of Photography – Beyond the Frame review, Isaac Huxtable
          • 2021 – Photomomitor – Beyond the Frame review, Shyama Laxman
          • 2021 – Elephant:  Why Is It So Hard to Talk About Fertility? Hettie Judah
          • 2020 – Tate Papers, Severance: Jessa Fairbrothers Conversations with My Mother, Jennifer Mundy 
          • 2020 – Mam: Maternal Art Magazine: Stay at Home
          • 2018 – Photomonitor: Conversations with my mother + essay:  Working with emotions in photography
          • 2017 – The Eye of Photography: ‘FORMAT Festival: discoveries from the portfolio reviews’, Holly Roussell
          • 2016 – Photoworks, ‘Showcase’: Conversations with my mother
          • 2016 – LensCulture, ‘Spotlight’: Conversations with my mother
          • 2012 – Interwoven, Pippa Oldfield: I Did
          • 2012 -‘Communication between FineArtists,Academics and Gender:A new practice?’Bulletine, Norway

          Symposiums

          • 2024 – Picturing the Unseen: Grief and Labour in and Out of Motherhood, MAC, Birmingham
          • 2021 – Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Whose Gaze?
          • 2018 – UWE, Bristol, The body as canvas 
          • 2017 – Birkbeck, University of London, The Pregnant Archive
          • 2016 Birmingham City University “Talking Practice”
          • 2016 – Salon, 10×10 Photobooks, New York: Conversations with my mother
          • 2016 – Photobook Bristol: In conversation with Mariela Sancari
          • 2016 – Flockomania, Birmingham City University: Beyond Jewellery: Performing the Body
          • 2012 – Cornerhouse: Lost is found

          Visiting Lecturer Artist Talks | Workshops | Mentoring 

          • Independent mentoring – see here
          • Rising Arts Agency, Bristol: mentoring emerging photographer.  
          • Talks/workshops at – Bath Spa University; Manchester Metropolitan University; Camarthen College of Art; Sheffield Hallam University; Birmingham City University; University West of England, Bristol; Rising Arts Agency, Bristol; Falmouth University; Gloucester University; University of South Wales

          Selected Talks

          • 2024 – Arnolfini: Art of the Maker
          • 2023 – Griffin Museum (US) [online] – Conversations with my mother
          • 2023 – Watershed, Bristol – post-film Panel Discussion after All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, with Dr. Marianne Mulvey and Professor Mandy Rose
          • 2021 – The Photographers’ Gallery – Head, Heart, Hands – in conversation with artist Alexandra Davenport.
          • 2021 – Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
          • 2020 – IG Live for Work Show Grow
          • 2020 – Redeye, Manchester – guest speaker – Snapshot.
          • 2020 – London Art Fair for The Photographers’ Gallery panel discussion -‘Women Photographers’.
          • 2019 – The Photographers’ Gallery, London – Photography and Health (guest speaker at The Social) 
          • 2018 – The Photographers’ Gallery, London – Sensing the image (guest speaker) 2016 – The Photographers’ Gallery, London – Tactile Photos
          • 2016 – Miniclick @ The Photographers’ Gallery, London 
          Acts of Creation, Arnolfini, Bristol, March 2024 © Bronwen Colquhoun
          Documenting work at the Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol. January 2022 © Tom Groves
          Beyond the Frame, ‘In Conversation, and In Character’  by Jessa Fairbrother at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery © Louis Little
          Beyond the Frame, ‘In Conversation, and In Character’  by Jessa Fairbrother at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery © Louis Little
          Work in Process – The Photographers’ Gallery, London, 2018
          ‘Role Play, (Woman with Cushion), FIX, The Barge House, London, 2017 © Celine Marchbank
          Role Play, (Woman with Cushion), Bristol, 2017
          S1 Members show, Sheffield 2011