Jo Nathan successfully completed Access and HNC courses in Art and Design, and has exhibited his work, in 2014 and 2017, in the Open Studio element of the Stroud Site festival. In July 2019 he put on his first solo exhibition at Lansdown Gallery in Stroud, ‘Outside In(Side) Out‘, and has participated in the North Bristol Artists Art Trail. Paintings from this exhibition also featured at the Other Worlds are Possible gallery at the Corn Exchange in Bristol.
In addition to painting, Jo also creates work in other visual media: 3-D, Installation, Photography, Video Art, and Sound. Some of these other forms were realised in a collaborative exhibition with poet David Slattery,
‘A Dialogue between Word and Image,’ in 2017. He is currently preparing site-specific work for a project at Woodchester Mansion in Gloucestershire, ‘Floating Flaws @ Woodchester Mansion’ in collaboration with sculptor Paul Grellier, as part of the SITE festival 2021. Following the Site festival the exhibition runs Fri – Sun for a further three weekends until October17th.
“Woodchester Mansion inspires contradictory feelings in me, as I am impressed by it’s magnificent scale and fine craftsmanship, whilst at the same time being affected with a deep sense of sadness and desolation at the ‘stillborn’ nature of William Leigh’s grand enterprise. This reflects a seeming contradiction in the man himself, humble and devoted to his faith and his family, whilst also driven by a grandiose and unrealistic vision which inevitably collapsed under the weight of its own expectations.
My work seeks to pay tribute to William Leigh the visionary – ‘lighting a fire’ in the cold heart(h) of the house through music, sound and image – whilst acknowledging the ultimate flaw and destructiveness inherent in his singular religious idealism.”
Jo Nathan
[Jo Nathan is the artist alias of Jon Hastings]