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Joanne Masding

Information / Contact

+44 (0) 7816 124 254
joanne@joannemasding.com
Lives and works in Birmingham, UK

Joanne Masding is I am an artist based in Birmingham, UK.

I have a sculptural practice, I work in clay, plaster, plastics, metal, as well as using text and image as materials for making objects. I make work to think about relationships to objects: ideas of worth, ownership and production, and how they are absorbed by bodies and through technological interfaces. My recent practice is a collection of artifacts and characters I use to think about what objects are and how we know them. I want to know things with my body rather than know about things in my head.

In 2024 I launched my first book as artwork, Body of Pieces, published by Bobo Books, edited by Jess Chandler and distributed by Bobo Books. It was announced with a debut performance made for TACO!, Thamesmead.

Recent exhibitions include: Tree and Leaf, Division of Labour, Salford (2023), Copy Out a New Shoot, Modern Painters New Decorators, Loughborough (2022) (solo); My Kid Could've Done That, Holborne Museum, Bath (2021); In the Peaceful Dome, Bluecoat, Liverpool (2017-18); Touche Eclat, Workplace, Gateshead (2017); Plaster Ghost Finger Cast, The New Art Gallery, Walsall (2017) (solo); image music text, IMT Gallery, London (2016); stuffs wander off, a shape steps in, Two Queens, Leicester (2016) (solo). I have undertaken residencies with organisations including: 501 Artspace, Chongqing, China, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin, Ireland, Research and Cultural Collections at University of Birmingham, Leicestershire Museums Collections. Permanent commission Flimsy Signals, made for developers Bruntwood, launched in summer 2018, and 'Make Future Village History', a public artwork for a new housing development in Cardiff, with Persimmon Homes and Studio Response launched in 2021. I was awarded a fellowship with John Feeney Charitable Trust in 2016-17 and in 2020 I received by nomination an Artist Award from Henry Moore Foundation.

I made Supporting Work (version 1), in 2022: a set of collaboratively generated ideas and encouragements to help artists maintain and develop their careers.

I launched Studio Outlet, which sells things made by artists, in late 2018.

I am co-director of Modern Clay, a co-operative ceramics studio in Birmingham.

For images from the studio, see @joannemasding on Instagram.

Solo exhibitions and projects

2024Body of Pieces live readings: performance to mark the launch, TACO!, Thamesmead
Body of Pieces, debut novel as artwork published by Bobo Books
2022Copy Out a New Shoot, Modern Painters New Decorators, Loughborough
2021Being mobile and multi-limbed, Arts Council England funded studio development project
Archive Fever, residency with Leicestershire Museums Trust
2019Make Future Village History, public art commission, Persimmon Homes and Studio Response, Cardiff
2018Flimsy Signals, permanent commission, Cornerblock, Birmingham
2017Plaster Ghost Finger Cast, The New Art Gallery Walsall
2016Artist in residence, University of Birmingham, Birmingham
stuffs wander off, a shape steps in, Two Queens, Leicester
2015Shiny Surface Amnesty, Air Space Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent (residency and exhibition)
Feature gif, Digital Artist Residency (online artist residency)
2014Echo, South Wales Echo for Cardiff Contemporary (curated by Sean Edwards)
Symbol for a Light, Longbridge Light Festival, Longbridge (commission for LED video screen. Curated by General Public)
2013Lacquer Moving Lightly, Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
Joanne Masding, 501 Artspace, Chongqing, China (residency and exhibition)
The Heterotic I, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin, Ireland (residency)
Standpoint Futures, Standpoint, London (residency)

Selected group exhibitions and projects

2023Tree and Leaf, Division of Labour, Salford
2021My Kid Could've Done That, Holborne Museum, Bath (An exhibition of newly commissioned work by 18 international artists made in collaboration with their young children, curated by Will Cooper)
2017In the Peaceful Dome, Bluecoat, Liverpool
Touche, Éclat, Workplace, Gateshead (Nina Chua, Daniel Davies, Joanne Masding, Yonatan Vinitsky)
Like the green fig tree, Workplace, Gateshead (Matt Antoniak, Hazel Brill, James Hindle, Harry Hurlock, Joanne Masding, Joe Shaw)
2016Image Music Text, IMT, London (Andrew Gillespie, Andrew Lacon, Joanne Masding. Curated by Division of Labour)
After, Division of Labour, London
2015The Place of The Scene, Bloc Projects, Sheffield (Rowena Harris, Fay Nicolson, Joanne Masding, Francesco Pedraglio)
Birmingham Show, Eastside Projects, Birmingham (curated by Gavin Wade and Ruth Claxton)
2013Objectness, Outpost, Norwich (curated by Peles Empire)
At a Distance, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham
Congratulations you are the most recent visitor, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (curated by Outpost)
Warm Breeze Over Rock, The Royal Standard, Liverpool (Joanne Masding, Flore Nove-Josserand)
2012The Possibility of an Island, Grand Union, Birmingham (curated by Tim Dixon)
Rotate: Eastside Projects and Grand Union, The Contemporary Art Society, London (curated by Ruth Claxton and Cheryl Jones)
2011Curfew Tower, Cushendall, Northern Ireland (residency)
2010Gene-George Earl, Joanne Masding, Ultra High Temperature, Eastside Projects, Birmingham (curated by Gavin Wade)

Awards and grants

2024STEAMhouse, forward programme
2022Arts Council England, developing your creative practice grant
2020Arts Council England, project grant for individuals
2018STEAMhouse, production grant
2016John Feeney Charitable Trust, Feeney Fellow 2016-17
A-N the artist’s newsletter, professional development bursary
2013Arts Council England, individual grants for the arts
A-N the artist’s newsletter, Venice Biennale research bursary

Selected other activities

2021Mothers*, Warriors and Poets, Stuttgart, Germany (Discussing working context for artist parents as part of the exhibition public programme)
How Not to Exclude Artist Parents: Some Guidelines for Institutions and Residencies (part of the working group that formed these guidelines written by Hettie Judah)
2020Research interview with Hettie Judah to inform her essay Full, Messy and Beautiful, published alongside the annual Freelands Foundation report on the representation of female artists in the UK, put together by artist and academic Kate McMillan
2018Kunst Vardo, Oslo, Norway (collaborative research residency)
2017Traverse, Aarhus, Denmark and New Art West Midlands (research project with Mette Boel)
2016ESP Programmer, Eastside Projects, Birmingham (programmer of associate artist development programme)
School of the Damned, class of 2017 (self-led alternative education model)
RE:Present, cultural leadership programme
2015Katharina Ludwig in residence at Grand Union, Birmingham (curated project, with Grand Union)
Guest editor, Press Room, Venice Biennale
2014Testing Ground Masterclass, Zabludowicz Collection, London
2013The Lombard Method 2013-14 programme (curated project with Adam Smythe)
Object as Process #1, Parasol Unit, London (screening and in conversation with Harry Burke)
2009Founder, co-director and co-curator, The Lombard Method, Birmingham

Bibliography

2021Full, Messy and Beautiful, written by Hettie Judah and published alongside the annual Freelands Foundation report on the representation of female artists in the UK by Kate McMillan
2018Recent Activity Annual, published by Bobo
2017Art Monthly, June 2016, Issue 407, Plaster Ghost Finger Cast in Midlands roundup
2015The Guardian, The Place of the Scene in This week’s new exhibitions
a-n, The Place of the Scene in The Week’s Top Exhibitions
Birmingham Mail, 21 Leading Young Artists
Curating the Contemporary, Tom Milnes speaks to Jason Brogan and Joanne Masding
The Bad Vibes Club, Joanne Masding on gifs
2013Corridor 8, Review of The Manchester Contemporary Art Fair
Buy Art Fair, video of The Manchester Contemporary Art Fair

Collections

Various private collections
Artist postcard collection, British Museum acquisition
Twenty Twenty collection, The New Art Gallery Walsall

Education

2017School of The Damned (self-led alternative postgraduate education)
2007Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester