I am currently in the process of realising a solo exhibition called ‘Best of Motown and Homecooking’ that explores my on going relationship with my home, class, culture and is driven by lived experience. This funding would allow me to produce, explore and experiment processes while putting together my first solo exhibition and full body of work since my residency at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2023 and duo exhibition with Mitch Vowels earlier in the year. I am keen to explore my relationship with sculpture outside of the processes I have already been working with; one of the main works I would be looking to produce would be a life size sculpture of the chimney breast, fire place and ornaments within the house I share with my gran, this would be 3D printed in a brass composite PLA that can be sanded to a give a brushed brass look. I also have been experimenting with rubbings made from the walls of the upstairs of the house, but I feel this needs to be pushed further and would like the opportunity to experiment with papers, materials and framing options to really get the best from the work. I feel that by making these works and along with the works I have ready to be/have been produced for this exhibition would really push my practice to the next level and this funding would allow me to realise this body of work without having to take a short cut or putting work out that I feel isn’t ready due to lack of funds.
My art work is rooted in Northern identity, culture, folk lore and working class heritage. I believe that my work would fit in within the community and creative arts scene of the area as I feel that my work attempts to empower people that are not normally seen as creative people, I deal with issues and subjects that are relatable without having to have a degree in art history. It is my main goal within my artwork and what I do to have my work seen within northern communities like Darlington and I have hope that my artwork can and will open people up to a way of working they haven’t thought of before.
Jim Brook (b. 1995, Dewsbury, UK) is an artist based in West Yorkshire. He received his Master of Arts from Leeds Arts University in 2020, following the completion of his undergraduate studies at the same institution in 2018. Brook’s interdisciplinary practice spans a variety of media, including the ready-made, sculpture, photography, and textiles, through which he critically engages with themes of masculinity, identity, class, home, and folk culture. Central to his work is a reflection on his personal lived experience, utilizing both object-based and conceptual methodologies to interrogate the complexities of these intersecting socio-cultural issues. Brook’s practice is deeply concerned with the exploration of identity within the context of working-class heritage, drawing on the symbolic and material associations of everyday objects and vernacular forms. Through this, he examines how these elements resonate within broader narratives of cultural memory, class structures, and the construction of masculinity. His work invites critical engagement with the ways in which personal history and collective experience shape notions of selfhood and belonging. People in Pubs, The Second Act Gallery. London. 2025.
NEW NOW, Guts Gallery, London, 2024
This Is Your Life, Collective Ending, London, 2023 (with Mitch Vowles)
Common, Group Show. London. 2025.
To Have and To Have Not, Village Books, Leeds (Solo Exhibition), 2022
The Top 100, The Auction Collective, London, 2021
2:A, WDT Gallery, Middlesbrough (Solo Exhibition), 2022
Rich Tea, Village Books, Leeds (Solo Exhibition), 2021
This Way For Fun!, Village Books, Leeds (Solo Exhibition), 2020
Shot Pint Riot, Studio 1.1, London (Group Exhibition), 2023
Raum, Zeit -> Irgendwas, Neue Archaik, Hanover (Group Exhibition), 2021
Address: 6 highfield mount, Thornhill, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, WF12 0QU, GB
