Lecturer appointed Ikon's artist in residence

University of Wolverhampton Course Leader in Fine Art, Dean Kelland, will be Ikon’s artist in residence for the next three years at HMP Grendon, Buckinghamshire. Funded by the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust, his appointment follows Edmund Clark’s residency (2014-2019).

Art at HMP Grendon is an extraordinary opportunity for the development of artistic practice for both Kelland and the prison community. In consultation with the artist, prison residents will continue to make and submit work to the Koestler Awards – through Koestler Arts, the UK’s leading prison arts charity – as well as holding annual exhibitions at HMP Grendon. The residency runs alongside a public programme of research symposiums and events at Ikon, allowing a platform for public discourse on arts practice and criminal justice.

Kelland works across performance, photography and filmmaking. His practice touches on cultures of taste and histories of class in order to produce engaging observations on collective and mediated identities. Kelland has exhibited nationally and internationally with Ikon and undertaken residencies at New Art Gallery Walsall and the Birmingham & Midland Institute. Kelland holds a PhD from Central Saint Martins and is MA Fine Art course leader at the University of Wolverhampton.

Dean said: “The prison community has been welcoming and the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust supportive from the outset. My ongoing interests in performance, gender representation and veils of masculinities are being rehearsed through the therapies at HMP Grendon, and I believe we can do something really exciting and positive.” 

HMP Grendon operates a Democratic Therapeutic Community (DTC) to provide group based therapy within a social climate which promotes positive relationships, personal responsibility and social participation. HMP Grendon has recently appointed Rebecca Hayward as its first woman governor since it was founded in 1962.