Jane Ormerod

Approaching poetry as a painter, painting as a poet…

Born on the south coast of England, I attended art school in London before moving to New York City in 2002. After art school, I exhibited widely including the 1989 New Contemporaries show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, but began writing in the early 1990s as the result of a bet. While co-curating an art show at a disused South London warehouse, I spotted a contest ad in Time Out for writing that demanded to be performed. Despite not writing creatively since school and never performing onstage, I said I’d enter and win. I did.

At this point I began using words in my paintings and installations. After relocating to NYC, I concentrated on poetry and spoken word performance. In 2012, I co-founded great weather for MEDIA. An independent press focusing on innovative poetry and prose, great weather publishes anthologies and solo poetry collections. I was deeply honored to receive a 2020 NYC Acker Award in publishing for my contribution to the avant-garde community.

Fast forward and now living in Hudson with a studio, I am inspired to return to visual art. Writing allows me to go back to a previous draft if necessary. However, applying paint to canvas becomes a relationship with time; a continuous dialogue between material, action, and thought. Since the 2022 Open Studios Hudson, I have exhibited at Gallery 40 in Poughkeepsie and at Super Secret Projects in Beacon.

Intuition, spontaneity, rhythm, and space…these are the balancing acts I am excited to explore.