Bio

Jane Pickersgill graduated with an MFA (Fine Art) from Wimbledon College of Art (UAL) in 2018.  Leeds born, she moved to London for career opportunities. Since 2024 she has a studio at Thamesside Studios SE18, having previously worked from temporary Koppel Project locations in Farringdon & Bank. 

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Before changing paths to study her masters, Jane pursued a successful career in fashion design,  which she draws upon in her inter disciplinary art practice. She works in the field of 'expanded drawing' using materials which display the interconnected nature of art and fashion - both of which are fetishized in contemporary culture. Her body of work Couture Drawing co-opts processes associated with fashion design, using materials which range from organza to parcel paper, thread, millinary and bookbinding fabrics.  She describes the pleasure in challenging a material  to perform in a way unfamiliar to its' common usage, recontextualising it, asking the viewer to suspend prejudice or preconception. In this sense the work is autobiographical as she relates the shock of her parents response to her desire to be an artist -designer, coming from a working class background with expectations only of motherhood and/or clerical work.  

 

The abstract imagery of the artwork evokes super modern architecture which is employed as a metaphor for both global and personal ambition. ​ Her investigations look at characteristics of urban renewal, the allure of city life, its commodification, and the promise of transformation which it poses to a continual influx of newcomers. 

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Jane participated in the Processions 2018 events commemorating the centenary of women's suffrage. Her grandmother played a formative role in her early upbringing, and was of that first generation of women to be enfranchised. Following on from Processions she has been engaged in an ongoing project Honouring my Grandmother......Whilst Escaping her Legacy. It analyses and celebrates the skills learnt from her grandmother which are being re-contextualised in her practice.  She describes this research as 'digging in the dirt to discover the pearl'. 

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Education ​

MFA Fine Art. Wimbledon College of Art (UAL). 

PTLLS (Preparation to teach in the lifelong learning sector) Lewisham College. 

Dip. Management Studies London South Bank University. 

BA (Hons) Fashion. Northumbria University. 

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