John Brooks

john@looming.com.au

instagram @L00ming

www.johnbrooks.com.au 

Education

Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours), Monash University, 2014

Bachelor of Fine Art (Drawing), Victorian College of the Arts, 2013

Advanced Diploma of Textile Design & Development, RMIT, 2010

Diploma of Arts: Studio Textiles, RMIT, 2009

 

Solo Exhibitions

I’m Writing This in Case There is a Spell to Make Me Forget, collaboration with Audrey Tan, Assembly Point, Melbourne, 2023

Swamp Breathing, collaboration with Audrey Tan, Blindside, Melbourne, 2021

Anti Stress All the Time Forever (playground for rescued earthworms, eye-shadow made from silverfish), collaboration with Audrey Tan, Dirty Dozen, Melbourne, 2018-19

Match your socks to your shoes so they look like strange boots, collaboration with Audrey Tan, Trocadero, Melbourne, 2018

To Sheila, Mailbox Art Space, Melbourne, 2016

Upward, Beyond the Onstreaming it Mooned, Bus Projects, Melbourne, 2015

Equine In(ter)vention, Kings ARI, Melbourne, 2015

Artificial Selection, Rubicon ARI, Melbourne, 2014

Transgenesis, Craft Victoria, Melbourne, 2014

 

Selected Group Exhibitions

A pixel, a vessel for carrying water, a chain of cards, a future made from limp threads, the ancestor of your phone, Mejia, Melbourne, 2023 (as curator)

Tree Log Paper Book, curated by Dell Stewart, Bus Projects, Melbourne, 2022

LAZAR!, Hayden’s Gallery, Melbourne, 2022

Weave It (Anything Can Be String), collaboration with Lisa Waup, Abbottsford Convent, Melbourne, 2022

A Mood Board for Libra Season Equilibrium, Rose Chong as part of Craft Contemporary, Melbourne, 2021

PLAY, curated by Claire Beale, Design Tasmania, Launceston, 2021

Sustainable Art 2020, Kingston Arts Centre online exhibition, 2020

Tough & Tender, curated by Anna Dunnil, Side Gate, Melbourne, 2020

Hoard Couture, Loop Project Space, Melbourne, 2020

Kindled Spirits, Bushfire relief fund raiser, Melbourne, 2020

Rain Dance, Grey Gardens Gallery, Melbourne, 2020

Toxic Cosmic, The Wandering Room, Melbourne, 2019

Good Luck Blanket, collaboration with Audrey Tan, Craft Cubed Window Walk, Kuwaii, Cathedral Arcade, Melbourne, 2019

All the Jewellery, RMIT Design Hub, Melbourne, 2019

Call of the Hoard, MEJIA, Melbourne, 2019

The Invisible Bridge, c3 Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne, 2019

Trainennial, C3, Melbourne, 2018

Craft Lab, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Melbourne, 2018

Open House: 3rd Tamworth Textile Triennial, curated Glenn Barkley, Tamworth Regional Gallery, NSW, 2017, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, NSW, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW, 2018, Artisan, Brisbane, Broken Hill Regional Gallery, NSW, Murray Bridge Regional Gallery, SA, Jam Factory, SA, Swan Hill Regional Gallery, VIC, 2019, Orange Regional Gallery, NSW, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, NSW, Bundaberg Regional Gallery, QLD 2020

Every Second Feels Like a Century, curated by Hannah Presley & Debbie Pryor, West Space, Melbourne 2017

Complete Me, Junior Space, Melbourne, 2017

Materiality, curated by Mardi Nowak, Town Hall Gallery, Melbourne, 2017

Australia Post Art Prize, Fort Delta, Melbourne, 2017

Off Grid, curated by Adriane Hayward & Josephine Briginshaw, Blindside, Melbourne, 2016

Wonky, curated by Sophia Cai & Caitlyn Shearer, Tinning st Presents, Melbourne, 2016

Beast Cult, Tinning st Presents, Melbourne, 2016

The Charged Object, Gallery Lane Cove, Sydney, 2016

Shedding Skin, Icelandic Textile Centre, Blönduós, Iceland, 2016

Meridian, Curated by Ara Dolatian, Adrian Joannou and Shirley Somers, Midsumma group show, Forty Five Downstairs, Melbourne, 2016

Blobjects, Craft Victoria pop up, Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne, 2015

Percy Grainger: In the Company of Strangers, Bayside Gallery, Melbourne, 2015

Monash University Graduate Exhibition, Monash University, Melbourne, 2014

Kraftwerk: Man Machine, Blindside, Melbourne, 2014

Fresh!, curated by Debbie Pryor, Craft Victoria, Melbourne, 2014

Newer 14, Trocadero, Melbourne, 2014

VCA Graduate Exhibition, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, 2013

Kraftwerk: Ohm, Sweet Ohm, Seventh Gallery, Melbourne, 2013

Mary & Lou Senini Student Art Award Exhibition, McClelland Sculpture Park Gallery, Melbourne, 2012

Material Culture, Counihan Gallery, Melbourne, 2012

Denim, curated by Dell Stewart, Mr Kitly, Melbourne, 2011

Grieving Widow, Death Be Kind, Melbourne, 2011

Transit, Brunswick Arts Space, Melbourne, 2011

Graphica, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 2011

Fuse, Counihan Gallery, Melbourne, 2010

Fragment Squared, curated by Douglas McManus, Barometer, Sydney, 2010

 

Awards, Grants & Residencies

Virtual Maker in Residence, Craft Victoria, 2020

Bundoora Homestead Arts Centre Artist in Residence, 2018

Australian Tapestry Workshop Artist in Residence, 2016

Icelandic Textile Centre Artist in Residence, Blönduós, Iceland, 2016

Fresh! finalist, Craft Victoria, 2014

Trocadero Artspace Exhibition Award, 2013

Gary Fell Award, 2013

Lionel Gell Foundation Scholarship, 2012

Bibliography

Winata, Amelia, John Brooks and Audrey Tan, Swamp Breathing, Memo Review, 2021

Wong, Panda, save all the soft things, Swamp Breathing catalogue text, 2021

Barkley, Glenn, Open House: Tamworth Textile Triennial catalogue essay, 2017

Briginshaw, Josephine & Hayward, Adriane, Off Grid catalogue essay, 2016

Stephens, Andrew, Unexpected Threads, Art Guide Australia, Oct 2016

Barry, Ramona, Living With Weaving, Tapestry Topics Fall 2016: Tapestry New Wave, Old is New, edited by Rachel Hine, 2016

Brooks, John, Diversions and Feedback Loops: Tapestry, Installation and Video, Tapestry Topics Fall 2016: Tapestry New Wave, Old is New, edited by Rachel Hine, 2016

Brooks, John, Acceptable Material, essay for Language of Labour, edited by Debbie Pryor, 2015

Wagstaff, Ace, Kraftwerk: Man Machine catalogue essay, 2014

I acknowledge the Woi Wurrung and Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin nations as the traditional owners of the land I live, work and weave on. I acknowledge their Elders past and present and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.