Jessa Fairbrother (b. London) is a British visual artist whose work spans stitch, photography, performance and drawing. The body is her main material.

She holds an MA in Photographic Studies from the University of Westminster (2010) and trained at drama school in London in the 1990s.  This laid the groundwork for her ongoing investigation of how art and audience collide.

The artist book of her work Conversations with my mother, is held in collections at Tate Britain, the V&A, London and The Museum of Fine Art, Houston.  Yale Centre for British Art and Bristol Museum and Art Gallery also hold pieces from this series. Her companion piece, Role Play (Woman with Cushion) is included in Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood – a Hayward Touring exhibition travelling the UK throughout 2024-2025 and included in the 2024 Thames and Hudson book of the same name by curator of the show, Hettie Judah.

She is a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust scholar, training at the Royal School of Needlework in historical hand embroidery, which she incorporates into her photographic work. This is now embedded in her long-term multi-faceted project A Fencing Manual for Women, which has also been supported in it’s development by a DYCP grant from the Arts Council of England, The Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust, Hosking Houses Trust, Gane Trust and GRAIN as well as private sponsors.

Jessa became an RWA Academician in 2023.

She works from her studio in Bristol, UK.

Jessa's official website.

Follow Jessa on Instagram.

Tate Papers: Severance: Jessa Fairbrother’s Conversations with My Mother 2016 - Jennifer Mundy

Michael Dooney

This episode of Subtext & Discourse Art World Podcast was recorded on 27. October 2024 between Perth (AU) and Bristol (UK).

Portrait of Jessa Fairbrother by Trish Morrissey in the Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood exhibition at MAC in Birmingham.