Cornish artist, Kurt Jackson to be guest of honour at University of Exeter launch event

As one of our most celebrated landscape painters, Jackson has been very generous in sharing his work with the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus and in particular the ESI, due to a shared passion for the environment and sustainability.

For more than a decade Kurt Jackson has been an artist in residence at Glastonbury Festival, working with Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and other leading green groups as a committed environmentalist. His most recent exhibition, Scilly, explores the quiet wilderness of the islands.

“It is here that I unroll my canvases and prop my boards, where the sand always gets in the paint, the wind and sun dry everything too quickly, the rain washes it all away and everything is so beautiful.”

Some years ago Jackson donated Cornish Trembling Sea Mat, a granite sculpture with a sculptural bronze bowl, flowing with water. Trembling Sea Mat depicts a primitive bryozoa animal; endangered by loss of habitat and climate change, one of the last colonies of this animal can be found at Swanpool in neighbouring Falmouth. The sculpture has been reinstalled between the ESI and Camborne School of Mines for staff and students to enjoy whilst crossing the courtyard or sitting outside.

In addition to this, Jackson has created a new 3 metre by 2 metre painting Taxonomy and Biodiversity especially for the ESI’s atrium space. The work looks at the sea, sky and land in macro and micro scale. The painted landscape includes a bio blitz of insects and flora and fauna, which Jackson has carefully labelled with detailed, handwritten, descriptions. Binoculars and telescopes will be available for onlookers to view the finer detail once in situ.

Kurt Jackson At ESI will take place on Thursday 27th September at the ESI Cafe from 5pm – 7pm, where Kurt will be reading a poem he wrote to accompany his painting. An exhibition of his work, including photography and preliminary paintings will be running in the adjacent Creative Studio until Friday 12th October as part of the Creative Exchange Programme. There will be a drinks reception at the event, which is open to the public and all are welcome.

The Creative Exchange Programme aims to facilitate collaboration between creative practitioners, the ESI and researchers on the University of Exeter’s Cornwall Campuses who share an interest in issues of environment and sustainability. Through this programme we are seeking to develop the region’s creative industries, inspire research and stimulate opportunities for public engagement and collaborative learning.

Read more at: http://www.exeter.ac.uk/esi/community/creativeexchange/