Bridgeman Images
About the artist
Rebecca is a print-maker and collage artist. She divides her time between London and Fen Ditton, near Cambridge. Drawing is at the centre of her practice and her intricate depictions of plants, artefacts and nature specimens, and her unique feather collages, are inspired both by material culture and natural history collections in museums as well as issues around biodiversity and conservation.
Using a technique she has perfected for printing images onto feathers, Rebecca collages these feathers into assemblages representing headdresses and capes and other ‘artefacts.’
Rebecca has a PhD from the Royal College of Art (2004) and is a faculty member of the Royal Drawing School. She has been Artist in Residence at the British Museum and the American Museum of Natural History, New York, and has exhibited widely both in the UK and internationally.
Rebecca’s work is held in the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, the British Library, the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the National Maritime Museum, as well as in many private collections.
"We are in an age when bird life is dwindling…but Jewell’s work points toward a happier outcome, a reconnection with the primal wonder of birds, a recognition of how poor our world would be without the feathered Other."
- Jonathan Franzen, author and writer
Awards
2020 Awarded Time Space Money grant from the Artists Information Company (a-n)
2020 Awarded Arts Council Response Fund
2018 Honorary Mention for Experimental Printmaking, Miniprint Kazanlak
2012 Highly Commended Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize
2009 Awarded Research Capability Funding from London Metropolitan University for 'Methodical Adventures' group Exhibition and Research
2008 The Campaign for Drawing Trailblazer Award for 'Drawing a Roman Legion' workshop at the British Museum
2005 Leverhulme Artist in Residence Award
2001 KPMG Travel Award
Residencies
2022 - Present Public Engagement Artist on the Wellcome-funded project From ‘Feed the Birds’ to ‘Do Not Feed the Animals’
2021-2023 Artist in Residence with the Arts, Science and Conservation Programme, Cambridge University
2013-2019 Artist in Residence at the British Museum ‘In Storage’ Project
2014 Visiting Artist in Residence at the American Museum of Natural History, New York
2009-2012 Visiting Research Fellow, London Metropolitan University
2006-2010 Artist in Residence, the Melanesia Project, the British Museum
2006-2007 AA2A (Artists Access to Art Schools) residency at Sir John Cass School of Art, London Metropolitan University
2006 The Florence Trust
2005-2006 Leverhulme Artist in Residence at the British Museum
Qualifications
Fellow of the Zoological Society of London(FZSL), Fellow of the Linnean Society (FLS) and Member of the Art Workers’ Guild (AWG)
1998-2004 PhD Royal College of Art, Natural History Illustration, department of Communication, Art and Design.
1997-1998 BTEC Diploma in Foundation Studies in Art and Design – London Guildhall University
1989 MA Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge
1982-1985 BA Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge
Fieldwork
In 1982 Rebecca lived for a year in Papua New Guinea, near Mount Hagen. She worked with anthropologist Wojtek Dabrowski, and artist Kathy Golski, and their four children. Here, Rebecca encountered the many beautiful birds of paradise in the forests, and also learnt about the great significance of birds for the local Gamugai people, who adorned themselves with their feathers.
In 2009 Rebecca was field-trip artist on the British Museum expedition to Santa Cruz, Solomon Islands. Here, Rebecca worked with children and local artists, teaching and exchanging practices and learning about the indigenous crafts of the Solomons. Photographs of Rebecca's fieldwork can be seen here.
Rebecca's Work is available at
© Rebecca Jewell