John Brooks

International award-winning artist John Brooks				
Born in the UK he was educated at Bath and majored in Art and Art history and History of Building. 

At college he studied graphics and used photography to create designs commercially and for pleasure. His darkroom work embraced most film types including Litho work and solarisation, working in 35mm, half-plate, 5 x 4, and other media. His early graphic work won him several prizes including one from Oxford University’s Queen’s College.

With an educational background in the history of building, architecture and engineering it is no wonder that his work often consisted of studies of these forms. A study tour of European architecture honed his ability to observe and analyse structure and form. This enabled him to create works that explored the subject matter in new ways. These works led to one of his first  exhibitions in the prestigious Arnolfini gallery in his early years of photography.

Since then he has expanded his repertoire to include more abstract and thematic compositions including illustrative work for particular publications.

His landscape work has been assisted by travel to interesting lands including India, Sri Lanka, China, Cuba, Mexico, India, North Africa, Canada, USA, Russia, inner and outer Mongolia, Belarus, Poland and many European countries.

He has had numerous exhibitions, both solo and joint and has been exhibited by invitation in London and Bristol UK and USA.  His work is represented by galleries and other organisations in Los Angeles, Vancouver and Maine USA. 

Brooks holds 12 International Awards for his work in the last five years and has work featured in magazines, journals and online image repositories. He has also published two books and work included in a third publication which he authored on behalf of a not for profit arts group.
Awards include:

December 2017 Finalist and Distinction Award - Art Expo New York, by the Circle Foundation for the Arts

March 2017 AWARDED SECOND PRIZE “2017 International Juried Exhibition", Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, California, USA


Grand Prize, New York Center for Photographic Art, Site 109 Lower East Side New York City, USA, May 2016 

Special Recognition for Outstanding Art, Light Space & Time Gallery, Jupiter, Florida USA, Seascapes Art Exhibition September 2014,

Honourable Mention, "Transportation”, New York Centre for Photographic Art Site 109 Lower East Side New York City, USA, September 2014

Special Recognition for Outstanding Art, Light Space & Time Gallery, Jupiter, Florida USA.
Cityscapes Art Exhibition March 2014, 

Silver Medal Award, San Francisco International Photography Exhibition, Gallery Photographica, San Francisco, California, USA July 2013, 

Special Recognition for Outstanding Art, Light Space & Time Online Gallery, Jupiter, Florida USA, Abstracts Art Exhibition April 2013.

Special Recognition for Outstanding Art, Light Space & Time Gallery, Jupiter, Florida USA, Seasons Art Competition November 2012. 

Artist of Distinction Award, The Stillpoint Art Gallery, Sacred Time, Sacred Spaces, November 2012 

Best in Competition Award, Man Made Spaces and Structures, Exhibitions Without Walls, October 2012 

Special Recognition for Outstanding Art, Light Space & Time Gallery, Jupiter, Florida USA, Landscapes Art Competition March 2012
Recent Exhibitions include:

Solo Exhibitions

2015 "Unexpected Elements of Landscape", The Paintworks, Bristol, UK

2014 Bristol Festival of Photography: Solo Exhibition: Horizons | Route 66
         Photographique Gallery, Bristol, UK

A selection from Collective Exhibitions:
"Street", at the A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, Texas, USA, July 6 to August 19, 2018 

Stillpoint Art Gallery, Global Portraits, February 1 to April 30, 2018 

"Electron Salon", Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, California, USA, from December 13th 2017 to January 6th 2018

RWA 165th Open Exhibition, The Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, UK - October 1st to 3rd December 2017 

"Topography by 4", Bristol Guild of Applied Art Gallery, Park Street, Bristol from 17th June to 8th July 2017 

"2017 International Juried Exhibition", Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, California, USA, from 9th March to April 1st 2017, Second Place winner.

"Elsewhere" at the A Smith Gallery, Johnson City, Texas, USA | March 17 to April 30, 2017

RWA 164th Open Exhibition, The Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, UK - October 9th to 27th November 2016 

"Geometry", New York Center for Photographic Art, 
The Jadite Gallery,413 West 50th St. New York, NY 10019, October 2016

2016 LACDA 12th Anniversary Members Exhibit, Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, 
         Los Angeles, California, USA 

2016 "The Art of Regeneration", The Menier Gallery, London, UK 

2016 Photography Exhibition, The Nude Tin Gallery, St Albans, Herts, UK

2016 "Unleashed", The Menier Gallery, 51 Southwark Street, London 

2015 –163rd Annual Open Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, UK

2015 "Quartz Visual Arts Festival" Queen's College, Taunton, UK

2015 The Art of Progress", 19 Greek St in Soho, London, UK 

Digital images and photography:
My work always reflects an emotional response to the subject matter. This is essential in the creation of any piece of art and without that it becomes merely a pictorial photograph.
Originally working in monochrome as a preferred medium allowed me to concentrate on the composition of images in geometric terms. The transition to colour was brought about by a shift in the artform which arose in the 1960’s making me aware that creativity was also possible using colour emulsions.

The usage of colour transformed my work and added another dimension to the possibilities of creativity. Much of my work focused on abstraction within the areas of urban and rural landscape influenced by the work of Callaghan and Meyerowitz. 

My work exploits the closeness with structures that I find to explore when I sense that the structure or the fabric of a building oozes energy from their interior and 'muscular' forms. The glass or masonry covered form is merely an envelope locked onto the strength of the internal skeleton. Within that skeleton exists the everyday function of that structure whether it be domestic, social, industrial or other occupation. That occupation or use is the interior energy of the structure in which I am interested and is what I am trying to express visually within my work. Whilst the scale and impact varies from striking to subtle (sometimes only visible upon a double take), I relish the opportunity to let a building 'feed' the form, as if the interior of the building is “exhaling into the work.

Private school in Bath, UK then college in Bath and later in Bristol.
College encompassed art, history of art, graphics, technical drawing, history of Building.
Poster design awarded by Queen's College, Oxford University in 1966.
Post graduate course in business studies and management in University of West of England.