Visual artist Jake Blanchard unveils his new exhibition, Creatures, which runs until 27th August 2023 at Todmorden’s Studio 9a.
Jake Blanchard is well known for his striking artwork, which can be found on album covers as well as books, independent brews, and more. His cover art for Richard Dawson’s The Ruby Cord was awarded third place in the Art Vinyl album cover of the year award 2022.
More recently, his artwork for James Jackson Toth’s James & The Giants extended beyond the packaging, as revealed by Gareth Thompson in his recent review of the album:
Links between visual and musical creatives can extend beyond a record’s packaging. In the case of James & The Giants’ a new release from James Jackson Toth, he was glad to know artist Jake Blanchard in two ways. Toth made some demos for this project as digital downloads on Bandcamp, but Blanchard thought they deserved a physical release, even just as CDRs. Toth agreed, and the aforesaid discs are now available under the Toth’s Law series. Secondly, it’s Blanchard at the helm for this album’s fine visuals, about which he told FRUK: “I took inspiration from the song lyrics and the title of the album to create the cover. There’s lots of little references to the lyrics running through the artwork, though some are easier to spot than others.”
Jake recently unveiled his new exhibition, Creatures, which runs until 27th August 2023 at Todmorden’s Studio 9a (Robinwood Mill, Todmorden OL14 8JA – https://www.9aprojects.com/).
Blanchard’s work delves into a world of both familiar and outlandish beings, surrounded by a created mythology and folklore from an alternative evolutionary and cultural history. The exhibition will feature over sixty new works, including paintings, prints, drawings, masks, ritual objects and instruments, all rendered in Blanchard’s signature psychedelic style.
Blanchard says, “For this exhibition I was thinking about the creatures that exist in this world; some familiar and some more unusual. I considered not just what they look like, but what they do. What objects do these civilizations create? What about their instruments, masks and sculptures, what rituals do they perform? What do their shops look like? Creatures is an anthropological study of an unknown culture. The work is presented as a series of paintings, drawings, lino prints, sculptures and instruments.”
As mentioned above, Blanchard was awarded third place in the Art Vinyl album cover of the year award 2022 for his artwork on Richard Dawson’s album, The Ruby Cord. He has also designed record sleeves for the likes of Elkhorn, Mike Gangloff, Wooden Wand, Pelt and James & The Giants. Elsewhere his work has appeared in Creative Review, The Guardian, Design Week and Computer Arts. He has illustrated for the BBC, Domino Records, Random House, Granta Publishing and many others.
Creatures runs from 29th July – 27th August 2023. Saturday & Sunday 12-5pm.
Studio 9a, Robinwood Mill, Todmorden OL14 8JA.
Limited onsite parking at Robinwood Mill. Please use public transport where possible.
Robinwood Mill is on bus routes (591/592 Halifax – Burnley) and walkable from Todmorden town centre or railway station.