John Brooks
john@looming.com.au
instagram @L00ming
www.johnbrooks.com.au
Education
Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours), Monash University, 2014
Bachelor of Fine Art (Drawing), Victorian College of the Arts, 2013
Advanced Diploma of Textile Design & Development, RMIT, 2010
Diploma of Arts: Studio Textiles, RMIT, 2009
Solo Exhibitions
From things flow what we call time, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne, 2025
Primordial Soup Mix, Library at the Dock, Melbourne, 2024
I’m Writing This in Case There is a Spell to Make Me Forget, collaboration with Audrey Tan, Assembly Point, Melbourne, 2023
Swamp Breathing, collaboration with Audrey Tan, Blindside, Melbourne, 2021
Anti Stress All the Time Forever (playground for rescued earthworms, eye-shadow made from silverfish), collaboration with Audrey Tan, Dirty Dozen, Melbourne, 2018-19
Match your socks to your shoes so they look like strange boots, collaboration with Audrey Tan, Trocadero, Melbourne, 2018
To Sheila, Mailbox Art Space, Melbourne, 2016
Upward, Beyond the Onstreaming it Mooned, Bus Projects, Melbourne, 2015
Equine In(ter)vention, Kings ARI, Melbourne, 2015
Artificial Selection, Rubicon ARI, Melbourne, 2014
Transgenesis, Craft Victoria, Melbourne, 2014
Group Exhibitions
Repost, Mailbox Art Space, Melbourne, 2024
A pixel, a vessel for carrying water, a chain of cards, a future made from limp threads, the ancestor of your phone, Mejia, Melbourne, 2023 (as curator)
Tree Log Paper Book, curated by Dell Stewart, Bus Projects, Melbourne, 2022
LAZAR!, Hayden’s Gallery, Melbourne, 2022
Weave It (Anything Can Be String), collaboration with Lisa Waup, Abbottsford Convent, Melbourne, 2022
A Mood Board for Libra Season Equilibrium, Rose Chong as part of Craft Contemporary, Melbourne, 2021
PLAY, curated by Claire Beale, Design Tasmania, Launceston, 2021
Sustainable Art 2020, Kingston Arts Centre online exhibition, 2020
Tough & Tender, curated by Anna Dunnil, Side Gate, Melbourne, 2020
Hoard Couture, Loop Project Space, Melbourne, 2020
Kindled Spirits, Bushfire relief fund raiser, Melbourne, 2020
Rain Dance, Grey Gardens Gallery, Melbourne, 2020
Toxic Cosmic, The Wandering Room, Melbourne, 2019
Good Luck Blanket, collaboration with Audrey Tan, Craft Cubed Window Walk, Kuwaii, Cathedral Arcade, Melbourne, 2019
All the Jewellery, RMIT Design Hub, Melbourne, 2019
Call of the Hoard, Mejia, Melbourne, 2019
The Invisible Bridge, C3 Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne, 2019
Trainennial, C3 Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne, 2018
Craft Lab, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Melbourne, 2018
Open House: 3rd Tamworth Textile Triennial, curated Glenn Barkley, Tamworth Regional Gallery, NSW, 2017, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, NSW, Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW, 2018, Artisan, Brisbane, Broken Hill Regional Gallery, NSW, Murray Bridge Regional Gallery, SA, Jam Factory, SA, Swan Hill Regional Gallery, VIC, 2019, Orange Regional Gallery, NSW, Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, NSW, Bundaberg Regional Gallery, QLD 2020
Every Second Feels Like a Century, curated by Hannah Presley & Debbie Pryor, West Space, Melbourne 2017
Complete Me, Junior Space, Melbourne, 2017
Materiality, curated by Mardi Nowak, Town Hall Gallery, Melbourne, 2017
Australia Post Art Prize, Fort Delta, Melbourne, 2017
Off Grid, curated by Adriane Hayward & Josephine Briginshaw, Blindside, Melbourne, 2016
Wonky, curated by Sophia Cai & Caitlyn Shearer, Tinning st Presents, Melbourne, 2016
Beast Cult, Tinning st Presents, Melbourne, 2016
The Charged Object, Gallery Lane Cove, Sydney, 2016
Shedding Skin, Icelandic Textile Centre, Blönduós, Iceland, 2016
Meridian, Curated by Ara Dolatian, Adrian Joannou and Shirley Somers, Midsumma group show, Forty Five Downstairs, Melbourne, 2016
Blobjects, Craft Victoria pop up, Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne, 2015
Percy Grainger: In the Company of Strangers, Bayside Gallery, Melbourne, 2015
Monash University Graduate Exhibition, Monash University, Melbourne, 2014
Kraftwerk: Man Machine, Blindside, Melbourne, 2014
Fresh!, curated by Debbie Pryor, Craft Victoria, Melbourne, 2014
Newer 14, Trocadero, Melbourne, 2014
VCA Graduate Exhibition, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, 2013
Kraftwerk: Ohm, Sweet Ohm, Seventh Gallery, Melbourne, 2013
Mary & Lou Senini Student Art Award Exhibition, McClelland Sculpture Park Gallery, Melbourne, 2012
Material Culture, Counihan Gallery, Melbourne, 2012
Denim, curated by Dell Stewart, Mr Kitly, Melbourne, 2011
Grieving Widow, Death Be Kind, Melbourne, 2011
Transit, Brunswick Arts Space, Melbourne, 2011
Graphica, First Site Gallery, Melbourne, 2011
Fuse, Counihan Gallery, Melbourne, 2010
Fragment Squared, curated by Douglas McManus, Barometer, Sydney, 2010
Awards, Grants & Residencies
Creative Workers Fund, Creative Victoria, 2021
Virtual Maker in Residence, Craft Victoria, 2020
Bundoora Homestead Arts Centre Artist in Residence, 2018
Australian Tapestry Workshop Artist in Residence, 2016
Icelandic Textile Centre Artist in Residence, Blönduós, Iceland, 2016
Fresh! finalist, Craft Victoria, 2014
Trocadero Artspace Exhibition Award, 2013
Gary Fell Award, 2013
Lionel Gell Foundation Scholarship, 2012
Bibliography
Winata, Amelia, John Brooks and Audrey Tan, Swamp Breathing, Memo Review, 2021
Wong, Panda, save all the soft things, Swamp Breathing catalogue text, 2021
Barkley, Glenn, Open House: Tamworth Textile Triennial catalogue essay, 2017
Briginshaw, Josephine & Hayward, Adriane, Off Grid catalogue essay, 2016
Stephens, Andrew, Unexpected Threads, Art Guide Australia, Oct 2016
Brooks, John, Acceptable Material, essay for Language of Labour, edited by Debbie Pryor, 2015
Wagstaff, Ace, Kraftwerk: Man Machine catalogue essay, 2014
I acknowledge the Woi Wurrung and Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin nations as the traditional owners of the land I live, work and weave on. I acknowledge their Elders past and present and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.