Award-winning artist and writer Valda Jackson works primarily in the mediums of painting and sculpture, drawing and printmaking. Her work explores the psychology of migration, identity, and loss. She makes work about our human existence and survival – themes which extend themselves into her public art commissions. Jackson has lectured and presented papers at international Conferences and Universities across Europe including the Royal College of Art, London, University of Cambridge, University of Tampere, Finland, ISCTE University Institute of Lisbon.
In January 2024, Jackson was awarded an MBE for services to Art. She is the designer of the Royal Mint coin commemorating the 75th anniversary of Windrush generations, released in 2023. Her first major solo exhibition ‘Miss Polly’ was exhibited at the RWA, Bristol in 2024.
Jackson’s untitled manuscript was shortlisted for the Bath Spa Prize by Janklow and Nesbit and is being developed into her first novel. She is a Hawthornden Literary Fellow – with short stories appearing in anthologies including The Book of Bristol, Comma Press (2023), online MMXX, Bath Spa University (2022), The Peepal Tree Book of Caribbean Short Stories (2018), Closure: Contemporary Black British Short Stories (Peepal Tree Press 2015).
Jackson’s long-term collaborative public art practice with sculptor Rodney Harris – Jackson and Harris, is commissioned by Peabody for a series of public sculptures integrated into the architecture at St Johns Hill in Clapham, London. Phase One, completed in 2017, won the Public Sculpture and Statues Association (PSSA) Marsh award for excellence in public sculpture. The final phase will be installed in 2026.
Currently, Jackson is appointed by UCL to create a memorial to Neuroscientist Professor Anita Harding (1952-1995). The life size bronze sculpture will be sited in the grounds of UCL’s new translational Neuroscience Centre at Grays Inn Road, London.
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