Jill Randall
Jill Randall is an artist based in the North-West, and exhibits her work nationally and internationally. She is a Member of The Royal Society of Sculptors and the European Sculpture Network.
Career highlights include participation in the Venice Biennale and inclusion in the survey show '35 years of sculpture' at Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, (2019), 1 of 2 sculptors representing the UK in ‘Difference & Diversity in Practice’, European Sculpture Network, Turin, Italy, in 2010, and residencies in Grizedale Forest and The Irwell Sculpture Trail.
Randall’s approach focusses on artists residencies in industrial settings, such as factories and mining sites as the context for new work, often engaging the workforce in its production, and establishing innovative ways of working with and interpreting industrial heritage.
Jill Randall’s work reveals the sublime and beautiful, the poetic and resonant in bleak and unpromising places, often making work with and from post-industrial, or ‘spoiled’ environments, utilising the specific chemistry and materials and processes on site to reveal an alternative ‘nature’ and alternative ‘beauty’, and exploring the unique ecology and biology in the rare plants and life forms that thrive on contaminated ground.
She has a long history of innovative creative public engagement, facilitating communities to reconnect with place and heritage, and co-wrote the book chapter ‘Understanding the audience experience of contemporary visual arts at Geevor Mine World Heritage Site’, for the book ‘Contemporary Art in Heritage Spaces’, published by Routledge in 2020.
She explores the ways in which the visual arts can be a catalyst for cultural regeneration and reengagement, reconnecting people with place, and bringing new knowledge and understanding to these places.
Randall undertook a Research Residency at Tate Britain in 2013, studying the APG (Artist Placement Group) Archive in order to investigate the origins of her own industry residencies and the negotiations involved. She has recently become a member of Incidental_Unit, an organisation which seeks to continue the legacy of APG, and to reignite debates about the role of the artist in society.
Randall was a Senior Lecturer and Researcher on the B.A. Fine Art Course at the University of Salford, and Co-Lead of the Practice As Research Centre of Excellence.
She was a founder member and Chair of SIGMA (Sculptors in Greater Manchester Association), the first group sculpture studio for artists in Manchester, UK.
Jill Randall is a sculptor and printmaker based at Prospect Studios, Waterfoot, Rossendale, Lancashire, UK, and exhibits her work nationally and internationally.
She is a Member of The Royal Society of Sculptors and the European Sculpture Network.
Randall recently exhibited work in the Venice Biennale (2019) in the PAPER Pavilion, ’Personal Structures’, Palazzo Mora, and the sculpture survey show ‘No Particular Place to Go’, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, alongside Henry Moore and Anthony Caro. (2019.)
In 2021, she participated in the International Artists Residency, OPEN SPACES 800, Bocholt, Germany, with artist Alan Birch.
Group exhibitions include Artists Space, New York, Cornerhouse, Manchester, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, and Galerie de Leones, Porto, Portugal.
Solo exhibitions include ‘As Above, So Below’, Royal Cornwall Museum and Wheal Martyn Museum, (2024/5), “Sheds of The Valley”, The Bug, Rochdale, (2021), “Aftermath’’, Geevor Tin Mine World Heritage Museum, Cornwall, (2016), “Jill Randall at The Merzbarn” (2014), “Place/Displace”, Touchstones Rochdale, (2013),"Golden Venture", The National Waterfront Museum, Swansea, (2011),“Secrets and Lives”, the Yard Gallery, Nottingham, (2006), and ”Light Matter”, The Lowry, Salford ( 2003) .
Jill Randall was invited to participate in the international project and exhibition, “Open Spaces-Under Construction – Zukunft bauen”, at KuBAaI, Bocholt, Germany, in 2016, and was one of 2 sculptors selected to represent the UK in the European sculpture survey show, “European Sculpture - Difference & Diversity”, at the Parco Culturale Le Serre, Turin, Italy ,(2010), and spoke at the 1X International Sculpture Forum of the European Sculpture Network.
Jill Randall has an important parallel practice working on major public art projects in collaboration with other professionals, 3 of which have won national awards.
She has been the recipient of many individual awards, including a Travel Scholarship to Barcelona from the McColl Arts Foundation, 4 Arts Council Awards to Artists, Foundation for Sport &The Arts and the National Lottery, a Royal Society of Arts “Art for Architecture” Award, and an ‘Artists At Work’ Award from Cywaith Cymru/Artworks Wales. Randall won a Universities Santander Travel Award to travel to Australia and Mexico in 2017 to research an arts and industry project based around the Cornish metal mining diaspora.
Residencies include a Research Residency at Tate Britain (2012/13), Grizedale Forest (1999), a major commission for the Irwell Sculpture Trail (2001), along with international residencies in Germany, Barcelona, Western Australia , Portugal, and several artists residencies in industrial and heritage sites.
Jill Randall’s work is in public and private collections in the USA, Spain, France, Portugal, Australia, Luxembourg, Mexico, and the UK.
Randall was a Senior Lecturer and Researcher on the B.A. Fine Art Course at the University of Salford, and Co-Lead of the Practice As Research Centre of Excellence.
Jill Randall was a founder member and Chair of SIGMA (Sculptors in Greater Manchester Association), the first group sculpture studio for artists in Manchester ,UK.
She lives and works in Rossendale, Lancashire, UK.
Contact details:
Email: jill@jillrandall.co.uk
Website: www.jillrandall.co.uk
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