Adrian Jackman graduated in 1997 with a Masters Degree in Fine
Arts from Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts and
has been exhibiting in solo and group shows in Auckland and
Wellington since.
Jackman encourages a sense of narrative in his work, often
utilising the juxtaposition of seemingly random elements (a melting
ice-cream, fawns, a diver, Manga anime figures) drawn from
the environs of pop culture to create tension and energy and to
provoke diverse readings of his work. For Jackman, modern pop
culture and advertising imagery inserts itself in the modern
landscape in a casual yet inescapable way and his response to it is
to illuminate its often otherworldly existence by translating its
most visible elements into his works in an often
witty and self-referential manner.
Jackman's fascination with the modern landscape of emblems,
symbols and imagery results in a kind of still-life; a snapshot of
a scene whose familiar elements are arranged in a decidedly
unfamiliar way, or whose seemingly random juxtaposition of emblems
entails a deeper symbolism.
Jackman also tutors in the finer aspects of acrylic painting at
Artstation and Te Tuhi, was awarded the Mt Eden Young Artist
Premier Award in 1996 and has been a finalist in many major
national art awards including the Norsewear Art Awards, Trust
Waikato Contemporary Art Awards and the Wallace Art Awards.