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David ThorpDavid Thorp (born 1947) is an artist and curator. He was educated in London, attending a Foundation course and further studies at Camberwell College of Arts. He completed a Master's Degree at Flinders University in South Australia. His first major curatorial assignment was when he curated the exhibition programme for the 1986 Adelaide Festival in Australia, and he has since had an eminent international curatorial career. Born as Jeffrey Bligh, he was adopted soon after his birth and was known from then on as David Thorp: after recently discovering his birth name, Thorp returned briefly (as an artist) to his birth name of Jeffrey Bligh and produced works with this identity for a period throughout 2023.
As an artist, Thorp has exhibited in the UK and Australia, with solo exhibitions in Cardiff and Melbourne. His work is represented in the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Flinders University Museum of Art, Australia. He exhibited early performance photographs with England & Co at Photo London in 2022, and at Paris Photo in 2022 and 2023. Solo exhibitions of recent works incorporating early images were held at at Contemporary Space in Folkestone (Everything Jeffrey does David does too); at Filet (Jeffrey Bligh meets David Thorpe once again) in 2023; and in New Viewings at Galerie Barbara Thumm (David Thorp: Jeffrey and David) also in 2023. Recent group exhibitions in 2023 include Design for a Garden at Von Bartha Basel and Tell me where your freedom lies at postROOM.
A solo installation and performance, Life is a Leaking Boat, will be held at England & Co’s project space in January 2024.
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