Bruce Asbestos creates enthusiastic, thoughtful, and entertaining artwork through different media and disciplines. The works are made through collaboration, digital media experimentation, and social media combined with the conventions of popular culture, marketing and small scale production. His position is increasingly in the public domain with an active online presence at the core of the practice; his YouTube channel is home to his online TV show ‘The Social Media Takeaway’, it uses the quick fix, low-brow, throw-away nature of YouTube as site to produce pop and performative artwork.
Bruce Asbestos creates enthusiastic, thoughtful, and entertaining artwork through different media and disciplines. The works are made through collaboration, digital media experimentation, and social media combined with the conventions of popular culture, marketing and small scale production. His position is increasingly in the public domain with an active online presence at the core of the practice; his YouTube channel is home to his online TV show ‘The Social Media Takeaway’, it uses the quick fix, low-brow, throw-away nature of YouTube as site to produce pop and performative artwork.
Bruce Asbestos, Brighton (1982)
2014
Bruce Asbestos A/B Testing – Concrete, Hayward Gallery, London
A Union of Voices – Horatio Junior, London
Sailor King, The King William IV, Nottingham
Tiny Canvas Friday – (www.facebook.com/b.asbestos)
Social Media Takeaway Series Two – (www.youtube.com/bruceasbestos)
Is There Wifi? Punk & Sheep, London
Mexico Members Exhibition www.m-e-x-i-c-o.co.uk
1000 YouTube Videos Uploaded on one day (www.youtube.com/bruceasbestos)
OTS/BLK, New College, Nottingham / Bergen
Wysing Art Centre 25 Years, Publication
2013
Social Media Takeaway Series One – 13 Episodes (www.youtube.com/bruceasbestos)
Facebook Chat Oracle, Online (https://www.facebook.com/events/326217460838532/)
Out of this World, Syson Gallery, Nottingham
As Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Nottingham Contemporary
Embassy Annuale, Telfer Gallery, Edinburgh
Talbot Rice Gallery Edinburgh
Two Queens, Leicester
2012
Reactor’s Function 6, Primary, Nottingham
Circle of Transcendence , Derby Museum and Gallery, Derby
Nottingham Trent MA Degree Show, Nottingham
Circle of Transcendence, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia
Open Ended Ending, Death Trap, Reactor Towers, Nottingham
Bruce Asbestos and John Harris, OTS Nottingham
Hatclub, Blackout Blitz, NYE, OTS, Nottingham
2011
An action, event or other thing that occurs or happens again, Nottingham
Quick Fox Jumps Over – EMVAN, Primary, Nottingham
The Barman in Reactor’s Green Man and Regular Fellows, Nottingham
Rhizomatic – Departure Gallery, London
Biocity Design Commission, Nottingham
Agitprop! Project Space 11, Plymouth
YH485’s print output for Outpost’s Summer Fayre, Norwich
E-Flux cover design selected by Aaron Juneau for Nottingham Contemporary, Art Basel
Hatclub, Wonky Forest, OTS, Nottingham
Hatclub, Wonky Forest, Kunst en Complex, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Residency organised by Neils Post / Kunst en Complex, Rotterdam
2010
Sideshow, Black Swan 1# Gameshow, Tether, Nottingham
Sideshow, Black Swan 2# Gameshow, Tether, Nottingham
Sideshow, Black Swan 3# Gameshow, Tether, Nottingham
Cloudhead Bus, YH485, Various locations
Big Lizard’s Big Idea, Reactor, Frankfurt, Germany
2009
Big Lizard’s Big Idea, Reactor, Newcastle
Curated Exhibitions
See http://www.tradegallery.org
Grants and Awards
2013 Funding from Arts Council England
2012 Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Melbourne (Scholarship)
2012 MA Fine Art, Nottingham Trent University, AHRC funded
2002 Arts Policy and Management : Musashino University (Musabi), Tokyo (Scholarship)
Articles and Reviews
2014
Vice – The Creators Project http://bit.ly/1beqst2
2013
Bruce Asbestos: On Painting, Programming and Minor Internet Celebrity
http://www.nottinghamvisualarts.net/articles/201311/interview-bruce-asbestos
2011
Tribute to a pioneer, Nottingham Evening Post September 8th
2012
MA, Distinction, Nottingham Trent University
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Melbourne (Scholarship)
2004
Hive, Nottingham Trent University Business School
Art BA Hons : Nottingham Trent University
2002
Arts Policy and Management : Musashino University (Musabi), Tokyo (Scholarship)
1999
Brighton College of Technology
