John France studied at Sheffield School of Art, Coventry Polytechnic and then for a M.A. Painting at Chelsea School of Art, London.He has received numerous awards including Windsor and Newton Student Award (1975), Arts Council of Great Britain Minor Award (1977), South West Arts Award Major Award (1980) and a British Council Award (2000). His work has been included in a number of international group and mixed exhibitions including John Moores Liverpool 19 Exhibition (Prizewinner), '4th International Drawing Triennial, Wroclaw, Poland', '10 eves jublileumi Kialliitasa', Miskolc Museum of Fine Arts, Hungary, 'Destination Drawing', International Drawing Research Institute, UNSW, Australia,” Intersection “ 1st International Contemporary Arts Festival, Ullan Batar, Mongolia and “ Renascence “ Hyogo International Painting Competition, Kobe , Japan.
He has been Guest Foreign Artist at the Stitching De Leidse School in Leiden, Netherlands (1977), Guest Foreign Artist at Thulso P ‘ART, Tihany/ Lake Balaton, Hungary (1999) and Artist in Residence at Sanskriti Foundation, New Delhi India (2000). This culminated in the British Council supported exhibition and publication 'Hand, Paper and Paint' at the Sanskriti Foundation Gallery.
Recent one – person exhibitions include 'Tender the Butcher' Lanchester Gallery, Mission Art Gallery, Budapest, Hungary, ‘Notes from Icarus the Fireman' and ‘Silent as Breathing' at Junko Aikawa Art International Gallery, Japan. Curatorial Projects include 'Message to India' exhibition and publication at the Queens Gallery, British Council New Delhi, which subsequently toured to Chandigarth, Jaipur and Mumbai in 2001.
John has taught extensively in Arts Schools in Britain and abroad. In 1998 he was appointed Head of Fine Art at the University of Derby to run parallel to his role as University Reader in Fine Art and Director of the Centre for Advanced Studio Practice. During this period John held Stewardship for the Henry Moore Fellowship in Sculpture (Ivan Smith) and Evelyn Williams Drawing Trust (Yvonne Buchheim) for the University of Derby.In 2002 John was also part of the team which was awarded the Henry Moore Drawing Fellowship (Tania Kovats) and Evelyn Williams Drawing Fellowship (Anne-Marie Creamer). Working with colleagues at UWE including Professor Deanna Petherbridge and Amanda Wood devising the Practice-Base symposium First and Second Drawing Quarter at Bower Ashton.John is currently Convener of the Advanced Centre in Drawing at UWE.
John France Downloadable Radio Interview Podcasts
On November 17th, 2008 ACiD's John France was interviewed at length by Radio Thornbury FM's 'Culture Vulture', Tony Billingham, about the nature of drawing specifically and it's larger effects on the wider world of art in general.
This interview is now available as a series of four podcasts whih can be either downloaded or played by accessing the links below. We would like to express our thanks to Radio Thornbury FM for allowing us to edit these recordings and make them available via this site.
John France Interview Part I
John France Interview Part II
John France Interview Part III
John France Interview Part IV
Back