"Through his shrewd use of social media, personal re-hashing of global pop culture and use of new digital technologies, he has established an unmistakable visual identity and unique brand (complete with logos) to almost become a living artwork." Art Review
​Bruce Asbestos’ work draws from a rich history of painting, sculpture, popular culture, folklore and fairy tales. His work frequently mixes everyday objects with high art, fashion, and responds to global pop culture. His interdisciplinary practice combines performance, painting, clothing, social media, video games, curating and many collaborations.
Witty, seductive and extravagant; Bruce’s work feels at once both unique yet strangely familiar. His playful use of popular culture, commerce and high art puts his own personal brand firmly within the realm of participation, play and pop art. The work uses spaces such as social media, the catwalk and virtual realities to create an accessible path through contemporary art.
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The works increasingly use play as a way of generating absurd, idiosyncratic combinations of objects and images, setting up problematic relationships between disparate elements of personal, cultural identity, fantasy and our collective relationship with commerce. Particularly, the work looks to make a sense of the idea of national and regional identity, given we are increasingly exposed to a shared global pop culture, and prompts audiences to reflect on their own cultural experience.
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Bruce Asbestos earned a degree in Fine Art from Nottingham Trent University, winning a scholarship at Musashino University, Tokyo, and went on to the Hive business school. He obtained a Master’s Degree at Nottingham Trent, during which he was awarded a scholarship at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.
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Recent projects and exhibitions include, Mega Bunny & Friends, SPILL Festival, Bootleg Shreg & Friends, Humber Street Gallery, Eye of Newt 2.0 QUAD, Derby, New British Informal, Browns East, London, Burple Purple, Recent Activity, Birmingham, Ok! Cherub! Bluecoat, Liverpool, S/S 2021, Power, National Justice Museum, S/S 2020 Bonington Gallery, Bruce Asbestos X Juliana Sissons, Primary, A/W Collection, Kunstraum, London, A/W 2018 Nottingham Contemporary, Arts Council International Fund project to NYC and Philadelphia, Bruce Asbestos A-B Testing, Concrete, Hayward Gallery, London. MTN DEW, Commission by EM15 for ‘Sunscreen’, Venice Biennale. Ivan Poe / Reactor, Plymouth Art Weekender. He was nominated for the £300,000 Paul Hamlyn Breakthrough Fund 2013/4. Bruce Asbestos artworks have been accessioned into the Government Art Collection, and the collection of the National Justice Museum.
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"Maybe Asbestos is playing the role of spectator and is waiting to see what the Internet will make of the extreme quantity of work." VICE
"This is Art for the social media age." The Stylist
Forthcoming
Monster fun, Nottingham UK
A/W 2024, Leicester
HOOBOOS HOOBAR, Colorado, US
Meet the HOOBOOS, Cumbria, UK
Eye of Newt - Thailand
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2023
Bootleg Shreg & Friends Humber Street Gallery, Hull, UK
Star Beans, Unproductive Solutions, USA
Mega Bunny & Friends, Spill Festival, Ipswich, UK
Residency, True Story, Nottingham
Together We Are Powerful, HUB, Sleaford, UK (Group Show/Residency)
2022
Eye of Newt 2.0 QUAD, Derby
New British Informal, Browns East, London
Burple Purple, Recent Activity, Birmingham
Ok! Cherub! Solo Exhibition, Bluecoat, Liverpool
Gallery Went Pop, Broadway, Letchworth
QUAD International Digital Fellow
S/S 2022 Holden Gallery, Manchester UK
Eye of Newt IOS game, Bluecoat Liverpool and QUAD Derby
Government Art Collection Acquisition of S/S 2020
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2021
Pfälzer hof Residency, Idar-Oberstein, Germany
Fashion Dust Umami, CCA Glasgow, UK
Cruise 2021, Holden Gallery, Manchester, UK
Cruise 2021, Microneme, Wuhan, China
S/S 2021, STREAM, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK
Hot Air, Manor Place Warehouse, London
Eye of Newt Installation, Other Art Fair, Kings Cross, London
S/S 2021, Power, National Justice Museum
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2020
S/S 2020, Bonington Gallery, Nottingham
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2019
A/W Collection, Bacchanal, Kunstraum, London
Ningbo Cultural Expo, Ningbo, China
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2018
Isadora, MoHA, Austin Texas
Bruce Asbestos A/W Collection 2018, Nottingham Contemporary
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2017
A/W Collection, Research, New York and Philadelphia
Bonington Film Night #7, curated by ANNEXINEMA
2016
Bloc Billboard, Bloc Projects, Sheffield
Plymouth Art Weekender, Main commission (As Reactor)
Weekend of Weird, Radar, Loughborough (As Reactor)
Mask - Plus Space, Coventry
IF A PAIR IS TWO, WHAT IS THREE? Harley Gallery, Nottinghamshire
SUNSCREEN - New Art Exchange, Nottingham
Of The Sea, Historic Dockyard Chatham, Kent
2015
Bruce Asbestos A/B Testing, Concrete, Hayward Gallery, London
British Moving Image in México, Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana, Mexico City
'The one where we wonder what Friends did', Wasps Studio, Glasgow
National Videogame Arcade / Game City - Minekraftwerk
MTN DEW, EM15 for ‘Sunscreen’, Venice Biennale
Faux Sho, It’s All Tropical, Assembly House, Leeds
FR€€ THING$, STCFTHOTS, Leeds
Dear Thoughtful, Charming Reader n0.4, HOAX Publication
2014
Social Media Takeaway Series Two, Bangkok, online
Is There WIFI? Cedar Lewisohn’s project space, London
A Union of Voices, curated by Tim Ellis, Horatio Junior, London
Sailor King, The King William IV, Nottingham
OTS/BLK, New College, Nottingham / Bergen
Mexico Members Exhibition, Leeds
Wysing Art Centre 25 Years, Publication
2013
Cardinal Keith O'Brien, Nottingham Contemporary (Performance)
Social Media Takeaway (13 Episodes) Derby Museum and Gallery, Derby
Out of this World, Syson Gallery, Nottingham
Embassy Annuale, Telfer Gallery, Edinburgh
Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh
LANparty,Two Queens, Leicester
Live Art Dogging, Reactor Halls, Curated by Daniel Oliver
2012
Reactor’s Function 6, Primary, Nottingham
Circle of Transcendence, Derby Museum and Gallery, Derby
Nottingham Trent MA Degree Show, Nottingham
Circle of Transcendence, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia
Open Ended Ending, Death Trap, Reactor Towers, Nottingham
Bruce Asbestos and John Harris, OTS, Nottingham
2011
An action, event or other thing that occurs or happens again, Nottingham
Quick Fox Jumps Over EMVAN, Primary, Nottingham
Green Man & Regular Fellows, Trade, Nottingham
Agitprop! Project Space 11, Plymouth
YH485, Outpost's Summer Fayre, Norwich
2010 Sideshow, Black Swan 1#, 2#, 3# Gameshow, Tether, Nottingham
Big Lizards Big Idea, Reactor, Frankfurt and Newcastle
2005-08
Ayling and Conroy, Collaboration
Commissions and Residencies
EFlux cover design, for Nottingham Contemporary, Art Basel
Biocity Design Commission, Nottingham
Neils Post / Kunst en Complex, Rotterdam
Articles and Media
"Through his shrewd use of social media, personal re-hashing of global pop culture and use of new digital technologies, he has established an unmistakable visual identity and unique brand (complete with logos) to almost become a living artwork."
Art Review
"This is Art for the social media age" The Stylist, Emerald Street
"Maybe Asbestos is playing the role of spectator and is waiting to see what the Internet will make of the extreme quantity of work" VICE, The Creators Project
"The Asbestos website promises that the displays will be changed to reflect the public response to the show. If so, how will he deal with people behaving as if the café telly is
on the blink? " Mark Lawson, New Statesman
"Bruce Asbestos experiments with internet presence and social media to explore ideas of marketing and monitoring" Aesthetica Magazine
"it's like, about the internet and shit. Such modern" Crack Magazine
"...we were now firmly of the opinion that all art is tremendous...I watched, with creeping nausea, Mr Asbestos’ piece" Deserter
"Asbestos' love of pop culture has been evident throughout all of his recent work" Ouch Magazine
"Cheeky Digital Artist Bruce Asbestos" Double Negative
"Colourful bursts of internet carnage" FAD Website
Curating
Moot Gallery 2005-6
My House Gallery 2005-8
Trade Gallery 2010 - 2020
Education
2011-2 MFA Fine Art, RMIT Melbourne, Australia (2 Month Scholarship)
2012 MA, Distinction, Nottingham Trent University
2004 Hive Business School
2002 Arts Policy and Management : Musashino University, Tokyo (4 Month Scholarship)
2001-4 Art BA Hons : Nottingham Trent University
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Talks, Lectures and Workshops
Post Internet Art and Music Symposium, Headington Hill Hall, Oxford Brookes University
Fine Art, Arts University Plymouth
FIT, MFA Fashion Design, NYC
Hochschule Trier, Idar-Oberstein
The Gallery, Leicester
Oxford Brookes, FIne Art, Oxford, UK
QUAD, Derby
Manchester Metropolitan University
Academy of Fine Art in Helsinki
Fashion Art Direction and Graphic Design, Manchester Metropolitan University
Hoofd Master Kunsteducatie Hanzehogeschool Groningen, Netherlands
Royal College of Art, London
The Bad Vibes Club, Open School East, London (Elinor Carmi, Benedict Drew, Erica Scourti,)
The collection, Lincoln, Lincolnshire
Particle, Kunst Vardo, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway (Reactor, Anja Carr, Roderick Hietbrink)
Around and Around Discussion, New Art Exchange, Nottingham
Lincoln Fine Art BA/MA, Lincoln University
Loughborough University
Beacon Bimonthlies 6, Wellingore, Lincolnshire
Nottingham Trent University
Spike Island, Bristol
Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds
Lincoln University, Lincoln
Cluj-Napoca University, Romania
Air: Open Dialogue, Angel Row Gallery
Hogeschool, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Enough Room for Space, Rotterdam, Netherlands