Alexander James Pollard's research explores the potential and/or crossovers between fine art painting and graphic novel arts. Through practice-based inquiry he works with appropriation and “cut-ups” as a catalyst for image-making, world building and the creation of alternative narratives. 

In a recent illustrated artist’s book titled: Aleister Crowley and Charles Dawson: The Order of the Dawn Man of 2022 (*made in collaboration with Luke Pendrell), Pollard co-wrote and illustrated a short story using a cut-up collaborative process involving postal art exchange. The work explores a fictional relationship between Aleister Crowley and Charles Dawson (creator of the Piltdown Man). Both Crowley and Dawson were residents of Hastings on the south coast of England. The work conjures up an alternative history of the Piltdown skull. One which accentuates the occultish, esoteric and supersensible readings of the skull as a hyperstitional object.

The Tangent Factories, another bookwork by Pollard, is a graphic novel “mash-up”. It is a semi-improvised story of an art school in a futuristic “after the bomb London”. The dialogue being appropriated from the science-fiction novels of Philip K Dick, and crunched together with the archetypal storyline of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. The work is fully illustrated with atmospheric paintings/collages which move in and out of abstraction. Throughout the novel, there are moments of “synchronicity” (*in a Jungian sense) triggering a meta-voice commentary appearing in the footnotes. This voice explores auto-theoretical narratives in the gutter of the text, re-injecting the “personal” into the appropriation-al.

*The painting shown above is titled “Cat God”, oil on panel, 2020.

* Aleister Crowley and Charles Dawson: The Order of the Dawn Man by Luke Pendrell and Alexander James Pollard is available in the University of Brighton Library at St. Peters House.

*Instagram: @ajpollard

Pollard studied BA (Hons) Painting and Drawing at Glasgow School of Art (1996-99). His MPhil titled A Genealogy of Bad Painting – Legacies, Soft Objects and Networks was undertaken at Goldsmiths College, London (2017).

In 2005 Pollard represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale. Highlights of his exhibition history include: Reboot: Ruins in Reverse, La Plate-forme, Dunkerque, France (2020), Paleo Fauvism, Hop Projects, Folkestone (2018), Jungle, Celine Gallery, Glasgow (2017), WoW Paintings, Young Team HQ, London (2016), Black Marks, Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh (2007), Counter Facture at Luhring Augustine, New York (2007), The Santorini Biennale, Santorini, Greece (2012) and The Irregular Correct – New Art from Glasgow at the Fremantle Art Centre, Fremantle, Australia (2012).  

Pollard has worked as a lecturer in Fine Art Painting and Printmaking at the Glasgow School of Art (2006-2013) and in Fine Art Painting at Wimbledon College of Arts (UAL) (2013-14). He now works at The University of Brighton (2014 - present), where he is a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art Painting and MA Fine Art.

His work is held in major international private and public collections including: Arts Council of England, Scottish National Gallery, Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal, The Government Art Collection. And private collections in the UK, Italy, Greece, Germany, Japan and the USA.