Jon Blackwood

Name

Jon Blackwood

Job title

Curator & Academic

About

I am a researcher, curator and writer on art. I have worked in the gallery sector as well as the Universities of Glamorgan and at DJCAD, as head of history & theory from 2004-11.

I spent three years living in the former Yugoslavia between 2011 and 2014, between Sarajevo and Skopje, conducting research and operating as a freelance curator and writer. I came back to Scotland in 2014 and am now a reader in contemporary art at Gray’s School of Art, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.

In the last decade I have curated, amongst others, the following shows: Intimacies (co-curated with Branka Vujanović, Collegium Artisticum, Sarajevo, September 2012), Paralelni Univerzum (duplex100m2, Sarajevo, Feb’14), Decoding : Contemporary Art in Bosnia-Herzegovina, (co-curated with Branka Vujanović, Igor Bošnjak, Predrag Terzić & Slobodan Vidović, National Museum of Montenegro, Cetinje, August ’14), Jusuf Hadžifejzović : Property of Emptiness (ICA, Zagreb, December ’14), Archipelago (Summerhall, Jan-Mar ’17), Captured State (Summerhall, October ’17), .Mladen Miljanović- Utopian Realism (Peacock & the worm, Feb ’19), In Between States (Peacock& the worm, Aberdeen, & Muzej na Grad Skopje, North Macedonia, Jun-Aug ’19), Dislocations (online, SGSAH, Glasgow, Jun ’21), and Overcoming Art ( with Bojan Ivanov, Ivana Samandova & Angela Vitanovska, Jadro Association, Skopje & Institute of Contemporary Art, Zagreb)

In recent times I have written short books and texts on UK artists Elsa James (firstsite, Colchester, Jun’21), Alan Grieve (Workspace Dunfermline, December ’21), and Amanda Loomes. I am open to writing commissions- from short gallery intros to longer critical essays- just get in touch.

My main interests are in performance & sound art, art beyond institutions, the links between contemporary art and politics, cultural policy, contemporary art & protest.I am also very interested in parallels between contemporary art and football and recently helped to organise a Scottish artists football team for a match against Belarus. In 2022 I worked on shows of Macedonian video art in Basel, Switzerland and then a group show of contemporary Bosnian art at Summerhall in Edinburgh.

In 2023 I am working on exhibition and research projects between Aberdeen, Sarajevo and Skopje.