Jo Gane
Jo Gane, work in progress, Nuneaton Library and Information Centre, 2023. Photo: Ruby Nixon.
Jo Gane is an artist working in Nuneaton, UK. Her practice involves producing photographic work which uses the materials of early photography and is inspired by the histories of these materials.
Jo’s artistic practice is based around her research into photographic materials and history in Birmingham, using historic photographic techniques from the dawn of photography such as the Calotype and wet plate collodion processes to make contemporary images that disrupt a linear representation of time. The sensory and tactile experience of these materials produces images which activate memories and share histories as well as communicating the photographic experience.
She is also involved in working as a teacher within both the museum and gallery sector and in HE. She works with museum exhibitions to develop and deliver innovative photography related education programmes. Her specialist area of knowledge is the practice of early photographic processes.
Currently a 1st year M4C funded PhD researcher at Birmingham City University and the Photo History Research Centre at De Montfort University. Jo is also a lecturer in Photography at Coventry University.
As part of Developing Coventry Biennial 2023 Jo has been working with people from Nuneaton and Bedworth to record stories of objects and environments from the local area. These cover a broad range of everyday stories about the interaction between people and their environments and objects that are particularly relevant to Nuneaton and Bedworth.
This project will share portraits of people alongside their stories in two exhibitions, one held in Nuneaton Library and Information Centre in July 2023 and another at Compton Verney Art Gallery & Park from October 2023. We announced Jo’s participation alongside the collaborative partnership at our March symposium event HERE.
An April outing of Coventry Biennial Cycle Club visited Jo’s studio to see artworks in-progress. Jo and her family then joined our group and led us to a nearby park where we completed a pinhole camera activity as a part of Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day.
This project is commissioned by Compton Verney Art Gallery & Park and Coventry Biennial using public funds from Arts Council England and Coventry City Council. Supported by Nuneaton Library and Information Centre (Warwickshire Libraries).
