Jamie Andrews

“My work is about play in every sense of the word, mind games to tease the eye and engage the senses. Fed by an obsessive desire for the childish and childlike naive innocence as viewed through the eyes of an adults knowledge and experience, the work is far from puerile and often leads to challenging and thought provoking images and sculptures. I use found objects such as toys, gold and silver jewellery as symbols to cannot with my audience in communicating a variety of messages.”

Jamie Andrews, better known as J, was born in Devon before moving to Cornwall aged 14 where, with the emergence of the punk scene teamed with navigating the rival territory of a new city, J first found his rebellion, punk flare. Now in his Suffolk residence, J continues to break the rules when it comes to his creative practice. He defies limits and expectations, instead he enjoys poking fun at more traditional methods of creating. Introducing a childlike playfulness and naivety in the introduction of toys and charms, often vintage, highly collectable pieces which the artist works into his acrylic paintings and sculptures as a means of playing with the idea of, and subverting value.

J’s vivid, tactile works bind the jovial playfulness and innocence with much deeper messages, often darkly humorous accounts of politics, religion and the troubling events of contemporary society. throughout the matter if fact and satirical documentation of worldly matters, J maintains a deep rooted sense of compassion for his fellow man and the environment as his work is bound up in the essence of a loss of innocence; cleverly captured with a delicate balance between a bold display of raw tragedy with a nostalgic easiness and empathy.

J has had success exhibiting across the country in shows such as the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize, London (2016), Air Gallery, Manchester (2020) as well as his first solo show with us at the Fairhurst Gallery titled Young Savage (2021), among others.