Edmond Brooks-Beckman

Edmond Brooks-Beckman (b . London 1987) Lives and works in London.

Studied Fine Art Painting at Brighton University holding a BA, 2006-2009. Between 2007-2010 Edmond collaborated with the Rocket Artists, a collective of artists with learning disabilities, which culminated in a performance at the Sallis Benney Theatre in the Tate Modern 2010. His studio practice has always worked alongside his teaching practice. Having completed a PGCE at the IOE in 2016 and worked within secondary education as an Art and Design teacher he progressed on to foundation course leader at the Hampstead School of Art where he currently teaches. He is about to complete an MA in Painting at The Royal College of Art (2021-2023).

What are you trying to say in your painting? I think I’ve spent so long working in the opposite direction. It hasn't been so much about what I'm trying to say to it but what the painting is saying to me, more about a type of listening.

Painting trumps narrative. I think about a thing like Tzitzit, a knotted set of threads that hang from religious garments worn by orthodox Jewish men and I don't really think about the genderedness of it, or the particular symbolic value, or the history of it. Of course these things are part of the conversation but most of my thinking time is in front of the canvas, so when I'm facing the object I’m thinking about how this thread-like thing can be used to link my marks together on a surface. These forms turn into a tool to stitch fragments. They become a thing in service of what the painting needs to resolve itself.