Photo by Charlie Campbell www.charliecampbell.co.uk

john lee bird lives in London. He once lived in Ipswich (in Suffolk) where he went to school, played with his cousins and liked to buy rabbits to afford him some time with his father whilst making the hutches.

He studied art at Ipswich College, dropped out to work in a record shop and ended up as the Manager and stayed there 5 years before throwing his arms up in the air and returning to study art properly. He then had a little accident and forgot to eat anything, and was forced to work in a record shop again (after he’d gotten a little fatter) whilst he saved money to go to university the next year.

He studied fine art at London Guildhall University whilst working at theatres and nightclubs and finally graduated in 2000.

Since then he has worked as a duty manager in theatres and as a primary school teacher and now he works as a full time artist; freelancing for different companies and most importantly to him, working on his own art.

john lee bird was 33 on the 3rd January 2008.

john lee bird has completed the third series of portraits for his before encore click here for more project, charting the characters he meets; a cast which fuel the current creative scene; from emerging musicians, artists, actors, poets and photographers, to pole dancers, performance artists, burlesque strip acts, drag queens and club kids.

The exhibition of the 36 new paintings, takes place 21st – 25th October at The 20th Century Theatre, London click here for more where over the course of the event performers depicted takes to the stage and unleashes their act on the willing (and often surprised) audience.

Previous Exhibitions

John Lee Bird has exhibited work in his hometown of Ipswich, in Cambridge, Bristol, Southampton, Plymouth, and at Kielder in Northumberland. He has also had various solo exhibitions in London including: his degree show in 2000 at Guildhall University (now London Metropolitan), in Gloucester Road 2002, at the Truman Brewery (Brick Lane) 2004, at the Start Centre in Woolwich 2004, at the Phoenix 369 Gallery (Edinburgh) 2005, at The 20th Century Theatre in Notting Hill (before encore - 2006 and before encore 2 – 2007), at the UBOX Gallery in Vauxhall Dec 2007 and Feb 2008, at Simon Carter in Covent Garden in April 2008, at the Stratford Old Town Hall June 2008 and shows regularly at his studio in East Ham.