Jack Dickson

Jack Dickson is a British portrait artist based in Dorset whose work explores identity, hybridity and place — what it means to have more than one cultural home, and to live with the longing that produces. Raised across different cultures and countries, he brings lived experience of migration and multiple belonging to a practice concerned with never quite arriving anywhere completely. In his current work, place and context are encoded rather than stated. Using collage and mixed media, topographical maps, street plans, textile patterns, cultural objects, landscape are layered into backgrounds and clothing, partially obscured. Nothing is decorative; each element is chosen to reward slow looking and discovery. Where his work has described what hybridity and displacement look like, he is now working through research, encounter and studio practice toward work that evokes what it feels like. Encouraging viewers who have lived between worlds to recognise their own experience. Jack has a national television profile including BBC One's Extraordinary Portraits and Sky Arts' Portrait Artist of the Year. His work is held in public collections including the National Portrait Gallery's online collection and the London Guildhall, and has been exhibited at the Russell-Cotes Gallery, Somerset House and the Mall Galleries.