Jeremy Deller was born in 1966. He lives and works in London.
Much of Deller’s work is collaborative; it has a strong political aspect, in the subjects dealt with and also the devaluation of artistic ego through the involvement of other people in the creative process. The great strength of Jeremy Deller’s artworks is that they directly raise the question of the sacredness and untouchability of spaces, social codes and emblems of power and even more so of political, economic and religious powers. Whether it’s stepping on Stonehenge’s sacred ground, jumping on it or highlighting popular culture, evoking music fans or the British, it’s all about mass creative power. Rather than fearing or suffering the powers in place, it results in a confrontation between history, culture and heritage. The work of Jeremy Deller is to be experienced by all and for all, he invites us to create a participatory work where everyone has a role to play. His artworks, trans-historical and partisan of free expression as a vector of values and meaning, initiate a dialogue between cultures, people, the past, the present and what could be the future. In a society that claims to open up access to culture and continues to provide a model to follow on what is culturally and intellectually acceptable from what is not, Deller gets away and plays with these societal stereotypes by focusing on subcultures, folklore, people.
He won the Turner Prize in 2004, and in 2010 was awarded the Albert Medal of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA). His work is present, among others, in the following institutions: FNAC, Paris; FRAC Nord-Pas-De-Calais; FRAC Pays de la Loire; FRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Musée des Arts Contemporains, Grand-Hornu; Tate Modern, London; Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
Recent exhibitions include : Warning Graphic Content, MAMCO, Genève/CH (2022) ; Wir haben die Schnauze voll, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn/DE (2020); Everybody In The Place, The Modern Institute, Glasgow/UK (2019); English Magic, British Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale/IT (2013); Sacrilege, Esplanade des Invalides, Projet Hors les Murs, FIAC Paris/FR (2012); Joy In People, Hayward Gallery, London/UK (2012); D’une révolution à l’autre, Carte Blanche à Jeremy Deller, Palais de Tokyo, Paris/FR (2008). In 2023, a retrospective of his work is going to take place simultaneously at La Criée Centre d’Art Contemporain, at FRAC Bretagne and at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes.
Jeremy Deller Art is Magic, Profile Books Ltd, Frac Bretagne, 2023, 240 pagesJeremy Deller. The Infinitely Variable Ideal of the Popular, CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid, 2015, 144 pagesJoy in People, Hayward Publishing, London, 2012, 215 pages
