Jon Campbell
Jon Campbell, born in Northern Ireland in 1961 and based in Melbourne since childhood, has exhibited his work since the 1980s. He expresses himself through various art forms, including painting, sculpture, neon lights, and music, and engages with everyday language and pop culture. His work is grounded in Australian slang and celebrates the language of everyday life.
In 2022 Campbell’s work was featured alongside Nadia Hernández in Speech Patterns: Nadia Hernández and Jon Campbell at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. After a residency at the Monash University Prato Centre in Italy in 2019 he exhibited the resulting series of works Carry on like a pork chop there. In 2018 his work was the subject of BALL YEAH: Selected works 1991-2016 at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery and in 2017 he had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney: MCA Collection: Jon Campbell. His work is currently on display in Just Not Australian at the Museum of Sydney, Melbourne Now at the National Gallery of Victoria and Australiana: Designing a Nation at Bendigo Art Gallery.
My art and politics are influenced by where I grew up in Melbourne’s Western suburbs. I’ve always been interested in things around me, the local, Australiana, language and rock n roll. I try to represent the overlooked and undervalued. It’s a questioning and celebration of who we are, constructed with a laidback lyricism, an engaging lo-fi aesthetic and a
Jon Campbell
sense of humour