Lastest Shape collaboration: Shape commissioned Jack to create his recent painting 'Ark' on view at London Zoo. Featured in our Shape Collection, exhibiting artist throughout some of the Shape Open exhibitions over the years.

Artist Statement : Jack Haslam’s work is about friendship, loyalty, and control. Haslam love for animals has been a major influence in his life and is a driving force within the work. Haslam states - What others might consider minor and unimportant details are the things that inspire my work. I am fascinated by the minutiae of different animals: the gorilla’s cheeks and the anteater’s claws. My portraits of animals appear fanciful, majestic and, at times, desperate. My cognitive problems mean that I have difficulty relating to humans. I find them unfathomable at times. Animals help me manage my feelings of isolation and allow me to build bridges with people. 

Haslam also sees himself as a printmaker, painter, model maker, and photographer. In his early work, Haslam often used dolls which became the vessels of hopes and dreams.  Haslam’s work enables him to act out concepts he finds hard to understand through other means, the needs for control is a theme running through all subjects and media. He has to keep things still in order to record the moment. Haslam stated, I am always searching for things that I think exist, but in fact do not. In my frustration, I try to make them materialise through my work. For this reason, I tend to use repetition and recurring images.  

'Ark', 2021, Painting

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Banner image: 'Ark' (2021); Description: A landscape painting of a colourful noah's ark scene with many animals stacked and arranged in little squares.