Jane V Southgate
I am a Suffolk-based artist whose work explores the female
experience, inner life, and our deep connection to the natural world.
My practice is rooted in emotion-led process and intuitive mark-
making, where paint, pastel, print, and sculpture become vessels for
stories of vulnerability, resilience, and renewal.
Having studied at Chelsea College of Arts, I have exhibited both
nationally and internationally. Past collaborations include research
projects and residencies with the British Trust for Ornithology, Kew
Gardens, the Natural History Museum Tring, Suffolk Wildlife Trust,
and others, with support from Arts Council England for my Nest Egg
project. My Knitted Brain, exhibited at the Wellcome Trust, was
acquired by a former President of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Across painting, collage, printmaking, ceramics, and textile sculpture,
I work with materials as varied as oil pastel, ink, clay, yarn, and
copper wire. The techniques I choose often carry symbolic weight —
layering traditional women’s crafts with unconventional forms to
create visual paradoxes that echo the complexity of identity, memory,
and embodied experience.
At the heart of my work is the human body — particularly women’s
bodies — not as objects, but as vessels of memory, energy, and truth.
Each piece is an invitation to pause, to feel, and to connect: with the
rhythms of nature, with one another, and with the quiet but powerful
moments of becoming that shape our lives.
Exhibitions and Residencies
Exhibitions and Residencies
2025 September ‘The Quiet Body, The Loud Line’ Corner Room, Framlingham
2025 ‘Ethéré’ Van Gogh Gallery, Madrid
2024 April ‘Specchi dell ‘Io:esplorando l’identita personale’, Galleria Cael, Milan
2023 December ‘SCULPTURAL,’ Fox Yard Studio, Stowmarket
October ‘Garden of Delights,’ The Corner Room, Framlingham
August ‘I must have flowers, always and always’, The Corner Room, Framlingham
April ‘Palette of the Senses’ A2arts gallery, Bildeston
2014 – 2017 Small Wonders MedImmune, Cambridge (Residency)
2015 New works for On Helix, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge (Exhibition)
2013 Stitched and Twisted exhibition for On Helix, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge
2011 Rural Collusions, Thornham Walks and SWT Lackford Lakes, Bury St Edmunds (Exhibition)Rural Idyll 2, Bentley, Ipswich (Exhibition)
2010 Install and Print, Waterfront gallery, UCS, Ipswich( Exhibition)
2009 AA2A scheme, UCS Ipswich (Residency)
2008 Dance, Stowhealth, Stowmarket (Exhibition) Tower 2008; St Mary at the Quay, Ipswich (Exhibition)
2007 Research residency at Kew gardens Herbarium
2006 Beyond the call of duty, Town Hall Galleries, Ipswich Sexhibition- exploring teenage sexual health and pregnancy, residency at Stowhealth, Stowmarket including work with staff, 6 th form students at Stowupland High School and Acorns and Amber teenage mums groups.
2005 Nest Egg, Christ Church Mansions, Ipswich, from residency at British Trust for Ornithology Nest Egg, Wysing Arts, Cambridge, from a residency at British Trust for Ornithology Soft II, Solo show Wimpole Hall, Cambridge Summertime, Pond Gallery, Snape Maltings
2004 Common Thread, Kaleyards Gallery, Chester Tidal Change, Pond Gallery, Snape Maltings View, Vista, Kaleyards Gallery, Chester
2003 Soft, Manor House Museum, Bury St Edmunds, Solo show from residency
The Contemporary Art Show, Pond Gallery, Snape Maltings
2002 Impressions, Babylon Gallery, Ely
2001 Printmakers, Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury Printmakers, Graham & Oldham Artists Gallery
1997 New Works, Gallery 44, Aldeburgh
1996 Bury St Edmunds Art Society Annual Exhibition
1995 Alternative Arts Summer Exhibition, London Commissions
2007 Crucifix for Christ Church, Moreton Hall, Bury St Edmunds
2005 The sum of the parts, for A Recipe For Success, Ipswich
2003 Sewing, Sowing for Manor House Museum, Bury St Edmunds
2002-3 Kevin Mayhew Publishers
book cover designs
2001 Shine for Christchurch, Moreton Hall, Bury St Edmunds
Education & Qualifications
1992-5 Chelsea College of Art &Design
Fine Art BA (hons) Degree specialising in Sculpture
1991-2 Ipswich School of Art and Design
National Diploma in Foundation Education in Art & Design,