About
Jennifer Gray is a Scottish Designer who exhibits her work nationally and internationally. She is a graduate of The Glasgow School of Art and Royal College of Art, London. Jennifer is currently Programme Director of the Jewellery and Silversmithing Department at Edinburgh College of Art. She is also undertaking a part-time practice-led PhD exploring how craft and design processes of re-making/reconstruction can be used to reinterpret and gain new perspectives on historical objects. Through her own practice she produces objects in a range of materials using techniques, which move in and out of the hand-made, and digital.
Digital Carving Definition: Jennifer uses methods that re-enact the process of subtractive sculpting using 3D technologies in a digital context. Her aim is to retain a ‘hand-made’ quality in her my finished works. In the digital realm she has created tools to carve back a block of pixels in the same manner as stone or wax is carved in the traditional sense. She has utilised the same hand/eye manual process of working with digital material as she uses with the physical.
CV
Employment
2006-Present: Self-employed Designer/Maker.
January 2019 – Lecturer, Programme Director Jewellery and Silversmithing, School of Design, Edinburgh College of Art
January 2018-Present: Senior Teaching Fellow, Programme Director Jewellery and Silversmithing, School of Design, Edinburgh College of Art
Sept 2017–January 2018: Teaching Fellow, School of Design, University of Edinburgh
Sept 2013 – Sept 2017: Design School Tutor, School of Design and Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of Edinburgh~
2008-10: Part-time lecturer with the City of Glasgow College in the Silversmithing/Jewellery and Community Outreach departments.
2007-10: Employed as resident artist for North and South Lanarkshire and Highland Councils to write, teach and lecture projects for senior High School pupils and Community Arts organisations.
2007- 2018: Visiting Lecturer, Glasgow School of Art (as part of ‘Design Domain’ lecture series), University of Glasgow, University of Brighton
Education
2016-22 Practice led Part-time PhD, School of Design, Edinburgh College of Art, Full Scholarship from Principal’s Career Development Award
2010-12 Masters Degree Goldsmithing, Silversmithing Metalwork & Jewellery, Royal College of Art, London
2002-06 BA Honours in Design Silversmithing and Jewellery at Glasgow School of Art and Design. (First Class Honours Degree)
2005 Foreign Exchange to Kyoto Seika University, Japan
Selected Exhibitions
2014 – present: Work is exhibited annually: Art Palm Beach, Florida and SOFA, Sculptural Objects, Functional Art, Chicago (represented by New York based Gallery, Charon Kransen)
2018: The Re(a)d Bed, Art and Therapeutic Design, Curated by Dr Stacey Hunter, City Arts Centre Edinburgh
2018: Design Exhibition Scotland (DES), Lyon and Turnbull, Edinburgh. Curated by Susanna Beaumont (Doggerfisher Gallery)
2018: ‘Sans les Mains!’, exhibition Curated by Michael Eden, Bernardaud Porcelain Factory in Limoges, France
2017: Showcase of work with furniture designer Angus Ross, The Caledonian Club, part of London Craft Week programme
2016: Scottish Pavilion at London Design Fair, London Design Festival
2015: Press Print To Make? With Michael Eden, British Ceramic Biennial, Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art at Manchester Metropolitan University
2015: Collect Open Space, Saatchi Gallery London with Making Enhanced Collective
2014: Lesley Craze, London, 30 Years in the Making
2013/14: CREATIVE SPIRIT, National Museum of Scotland. Exhibition of re-creations made using innovative technological and traditional craft skills to bring back to life objects which have not survived or have been badly preserved.
2013: MOST Salone London Design Festival – Studies For My Mind, Sir John Soane Museum. Curated by Will Sorrell. Six designers, including Nigel Coates, invited to exhibit objects inspired by the Sir John Soane Museum.
2013: Sculptural Objects, Functional Art, (SOFA), Chicago
2013: Prototypes & Experiments VII and VII(2), Aram Gallery, London
2013: Coronation Festival, Gardens at Buckingham Palace
2013: Saplings – 360º Vision, Group show of Contemporary Jewellery, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
2013: Talente (Schmuck), International Trade Fair, Munich
2012: ‘A Spacial Surprise’, London Design Festival, Mint Gallery, London
2012: Scoop, International Fashion Show, Saatchi Gallery, London
2012: Graduate Exhibition, Gallerie Marzee, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
2012: ‘Paradise’, Milan Design Fair: Salone Internazionale del Mobile
Work Produced for Artists
2008/9: Silversmith for metal work produced for Turner Prize nominee Lucy Skaer, for solo show A Boat Used as a Vessel, Kunsthalle, Basel
2008: Silversmith for metal work produced for Lucy Skaer, ‘The Siege’, Chisenhale Gallery, London
Stockists/Work in Private Collections
First Minister Office, Scottish Parliament – Private Collection
St James Palace, London – Private Collection
National Museum of Scotland – Public Collection
Gallerie Marzee, The Netherlands – Public Collection
The Newark Museum, New Jersey USA – Public Collection
Mint, 2 North Terrace, London, (Brompton Design District) http://www.mintshop.co.uk
Charon Kransen, New York
Awards/Funding
2018: Exceptional Contribution Award, Awarded by University of Edinburgh, College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences for contribution to the Design School and College
2016: Full Scholarship from Principal’s Career Development Award for Doctoral Studies
2016: Heals Selects, selected by Heals as one of their choice designers during the London Design Festival
2016: Inches Carr Trust Craft Bursary, used to create a new body of work
2015: Perrier-Jouët Arts Salon Nomination
2013: Creative Scotland Travel Grant for SOFA Chicago
2012: Armourers and Brasiers Award for work exhibited as part of RCA Final MA show
2012: Theo Fennell Award for work exhibited as part of RCA Final MA show
2010: Winner of first Goldsmiths’ Company Royal College of Art Scholarship
2010: Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, Educational Scholarship
2010: Hedely Foundation, Educational Scholarship
2010: Dewar Arts Award, Educational Scholarship
2010: Goldsmiths’ Craftsmanship and Design Awards, Award for modelling and carving
2009: Arts Trust Scotland, emerging artist grant
2006: Silversmithing Bursary from Goldsmiths’ Company
2006: Precious Metal Bursary Goldsmiths’ Company
2006: Incorporation of Hammermen Prize
Publications
Goldberg, M (Senior Curator of Early Historic and Viking collections, NMS), Gray, J, Maxwell, M. The interplay of digital and traditional craft: re-creating an authentic Pictish drinking horn. Included in ‘CAA 2015 KEEP THE REVOLUTION GOING’
Campana, R. Scopigno, G. Carpentiero & M. Cirillo (eds) 2016..
2 vols, pp. 1182. Oxford: Archaeopress. ISBN 9781784913389.
(Peer-reviewed paper, first delivered at the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, Annual Conference Siena, Italy 2015)
Bottomley, S. & Gray, J. (2014). Beneath the Surface: Digital craft borderlands in education. In K. Bunnell & J. Marshall (Eds.), All Makers Now, International Conference, Falmouth University, 2014. ISBN 978-0-9544187-9-3
Gray, J, Maxwell, M. (2014). Design Archaeology: bringing a pictish drinking horn to life. In K. Bunnell & J. Marshall (Eds.), All Makers Now, International Conference, Falmouth University, 2014. ISBN 978-0-9544187-9-3
Conferences
Delivered 3 papers at ‘All Makers Now?’ Conference with Autonomatic Research Group at Falmouth University, 2014
Joint paper with Dr Mhairi Maxwell on recreation of a Pictish drinking Horn at IICA7 – 7th International Insular Art Conference, National University of Ireland, Galway, 2014
The same paper was presented at Computer Applications and Quantitive Methods in Archaeology, Annual Conference Siena, Italy 2015
Delivered joint paper with Soersha Dyon on the practices of making, collecting and re-enacting art and design at the ‘Material Culture in Action’ Conference, Glasgow School of Art 2015
Invitation to give a lecture discussing the value of creativity as part of a symposium held at City of Glasgow College on International Women’s Day in March 2018. Panel discussions included politicians, academics, practitioners, curators and representatives from various cultural organisations from around the UK. The day-long symposium was chaired by Kirsty Wark.
In partnership with Dr Helen McCormack and Dr Anne Nellis Richter, co-convened a series of papers and a panel discussion for the annual conference at the Courtauld Institute of Art and King’s College London, April 2018. A paper was presented entitled: ‘Looking Out and In: Reflecting and Reimagining Historical Interiors from Contemporary Viewpoints’.
Invited speaker : Experiment, Experience and Enchant Knowledge sharing between museums and contemporary craft, NMS Symposium March 2020. Jennifer Gray and Dr Mhairi Maxwell (Curator V&A Dundee) were invited to present a revised paper reflecting on how their Design/Archaeology collaborative process has influenced future practice and projects.
Contact
+44 (0) 7854860791
www.instagram.com/jennifergraystudio/