Jon Kipps is a visual artist currently based in Southend-on-Sea.

My work stems from a curiosity in the way people choose to model and customise their environments and surrounding commodities, as well as how we are encouraged to interpret them. I am particularly interested in objects associated with asserting or diffusing power, manipulating behaviour and understanding social hierarchies. Examples include the design of symbols and visual communication, architectural design, car body modifications, warning markers, way finders, coastal defences and hostile design such as homeless spikes, skate stoppers and bollards. I explore different combinations of these themes, splicing various elements together to create hybrid objects.

Much of my work attempts to undermine the assertiveness inherent in such design through materiality. I utilise discarded or waste materials (wood offcuts, unwanted packaging etc), manipulating them in order to shift the way they can be perceived - spraying cardboard pulp to imitate a bronze patina, dying MDF black to resemble a far more robust material such as steel or concrete or repurposing cheap plasterboard into towering, fluted columns. I work with Mycelium (the root structure of fungus), growing it into specific shapes and encouraging it to encapsulate smaller components within the work in order to highlight the common play off between nature and human infrastructure.

The forms I make are further ‘customised’ using stickers, found objects, reflectors, bespoke paint finishes and tailor made components intended to imply a level of functionality. My idea of making sculpture is that it is possible to charge materials with a low-fi power. When you invest enough energy into making an object it can acquire a special sort of resonance.

Recent sculptures are all named after bands from niche music genres of Punk and Metal such as Doom or Hardcore bringing an additional layer of symbolism. 

Jon Kipps (b.1986, Southend-on-Sea) graduated from the MFA Sculpture at Slade School of Art (Distinction) in 2014. Kipps was shortlisted for the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award 2020. Key exhibitions include: Deep Adaptation, Standpoint Gallery London, 2023 (solo); [X], Thirsk Hall Sculpture Garden, North Yorkshire, 2022 (solo); Making poetry with solid objects II, Komagome SOKO, Tokyo, Japan, 2024; Residency #2 (w/ Dimitris Ameladiotis), Gonzo Unit, thessaloniki, Greece 2021; The Long Goodbye (w/ Dan Pasteiner), U10 Project Space, Belgrade, Serbia 2020; Kuroko, Index Festival, Leeds 2019; Fogou (w/ Stuart Bowditch), May Project, London 2018; Arches and Velvet Curtains, Frank Kent and Jonathan Kipps, Royal Academy of Arts, London 2017; Fifteen, Kate MacGarry, London 2017; TAWI, Dakar Biennalle OFF, Senegal 2016; Jonathan Kipps & Article 25, News of the World, London 2016; Works made in Japan, Musashino Art University, (Boise Travel Scholarship), Tokyo 2014; Re-Launch (commissioned architectural work), UCL Art Museum, London 2014; Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, album artwork, Cooking Vinyl records 2010.