Jacqui Barrowcliffe

My work embraces slowness through a process based practice. The medium I work in for each project is something I spend time and care on, and must be relevant to the ideas I am exploring. In this way, the work evolves through the relationship between idea and materials. 

From work reflecting on loss and resilience through the unpicking of cloth, to work that considers our relationship with nature, using materials as diverse as cyanotype, eroded bricks, sand, and video installation. 

Inspired by the landscape and heritage of the North Yorkshire coast where I live, my ideas develop through daily contemplation of my surroundings and my emotional connection to my environment. 

All my work stems from a lived experience of loss, framed within a wider exploration of processes of collapse and regeneration. 

Combining and contrasting digital and analogue, intimate and universal narratives, man made and natural rhythms, I make connections between personal, collective and environmental grief, resilience and transformation.

I hold a degree in Fine Art from Middlesex University but followed a different career path before returning to my artistic roots many years later. I subsequently trained in Therapeutic Photography, completed a Postgraduate in Art Therapy, and set up my creative practice in 2020. The work I developed from these studies led to being awarded a residency at Roca Umbert Fabrica d’Arts, Barcelona, where I used to live. 

Since then I have moved back to the UK and have established my practice in North Yorkshire. I combine my own studio work with community projects, including regular collaborations with the arts and science organisation Invisible Dust, amongst others. Projects are inspired by the themes in my own work with a view to generating discussion around environmental concerns and nature connection. 

I have exhibited widely across the UK, and in Barcelona. Awards include a finalist for the Scott Creative Art Foundation Emerging Artist, 2023,  a residency at RuptureXIBIT, London, 2024 and shortlisted for the 8th John Ruskin Prize, London, 2026.