JEREMY DELLER

Early Years

Jeremy Deller was born in London in 1966—he enjoyed spending time in museums and eventually studied art history at the Courtauld Institute. Following a meeting with Andy Warhol in 1986 he spent a fortnight at The Factory. An MA in art history from Sussex University in 1992 theoretically positioned him ideally to work in a museum, but he realised he was “temperamentally not cut out to be a curator or a museum director”. In 1993, 27-year-old Deller was living at home with his parents; he wanted to show the artwork he was making but didn’t have a studio, so when his mum and dad went on holiday, he staged an “open bedroom” exhibition, including paintings about Keith Moon and a transcript of the graffiti from the men’s loos at the British Library in his parents’ lavatory.

Jeremy Deller: Artworks

Collaboration and participation are key elements of Deller’s artworks, which often feature casts of performers or the opportunity for the public to get involved with the piece. His works regularly spotlight political and cultural issues.

• 1997’s Acid Brass was arguably Deller’s breakthrough piece, in which he brought together a brass band (the Williams Fairey brass band) and acid house music. The piece debuted at the Bluecoat Arts Centre in Liverpool and was also part of Tate Modern’s opening party.
• Jeremy Deller won the Turner Prize in 2004 for Memory Bucket, a installation he created while living in San Antonio, Texas, for two months. A video, the centre of the work, featured interviews with citizens of Crawford (George W Bush’s home) and Waco (infamous for the 1993 siege). The rest of the installation included photographs, bumper stickers and other paraphernalia highlighting the natural, social and political aspects of the state of Texas.
• Sacrilege (2012) began its world tour in Glasgow—the full-scale, bouncy castle replica of Stonehenge was Deller’s first major public project in Scotland. It toured the world, sadly falling to bits after being damaged in a heatwave in Perth, Australia. It was later taken apart to make tote bags.
• We’re Here Because We’re Here (2016) commemorated the centenary of the Battle of the Somme with 1,400 volunteers, dressed in First World War uniforms, appearing in public places throughout Britain. There was no advance publicity—the characters simply appeared. Each one had a card bearing the name, age and regiment of someone who died during the conflict.

Jeremy Deller: Select Exhibitions

Select Solo Exhibitions

• Excerpts from English Magic, The Box, Plymouth (2025)
• Crossing the water, 17th Contemporary Art Biennale, Lyon (2024)
• Jeremy Deller: Music is Prophecy, Harbour House, Devon (2024)
• MR invites JM invites”¦ (a billboard project), Jeremy Deller, Meyer Riegger, Berlin (2023)
• Welcome to the Shitshow! , Kunsthal Charlottenburg, Copenhagen (2023)
• Warning Graphic Content, Franz Josefs Kai 3, Vienna (2023)
• Pigeon Park 2’ Pigeon Park, London (2022)
• Warning Graphic Content, MAMCO Museé d’Art Moderne, Geneva (2022) (and touring)
• Folk Archive, The Burton at Bideford (2020)
• Wir haben die Schnauze voll (We’re Fed Up!), Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn
• Everybody in the Place, An Incomplete History of Britain 1984–1992, The Modern Institute, , Glasgow (2019)
• Jeremy Deller: Video Works, MOCA, Cleveland (2017)
• The Infinitely Variable Ideal of the Popular, Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao (2015) (and touring)
• English Magic Remix, Crate Space, Margate (2014)
• English Magic, 55th Venice Biennale (2013) (and touring)
• Sacrillege, Cultural Olympiad, London 2012 festival (2012) (and touring)
• A Room for London | Hearts of Darkness, Cultural Olympiad, London 2012 Festival (2012)
• Joy In People, Hayward Gallery, London (2012) (and touring)
• Jeremy Deller: Manchester Tracks, RISD Museum, Providence (2011) (and touring)
• Baghdad, 5 March 2007: A New Display with Jeremy Deller’, Imperial War Museum, London (2010) (and touring)
• It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq, The New Museum, New York City (2011) (and touring), Carte Blanche Jeremy Deller, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2008)
• Jeremy Deller, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill (2006)
• Folk Archive, Barbican Art Gallery Curve, London (2005)
• The Battle of Orgreave Archive - An Injury To One Is An Injury To All, Art Unlimited (2004)
• Memory Bucket, Artpace, San Antonio (2003)
• Battle of Orgreave, Orgreave, South Yorkshire (2001)
• Acid Brass, with the Williams Fairey Brass Band (1997)
• The Search for Bez, Art Cologne (1994)

Select Group Exhibitions

• Beryl Cook: Pride and Joy, The Box, Plymouth (2026)
• Artists for Kettle’s Yard, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
• All Directions, Fenix Museum, Rotterdam (2025)
• Survival Kit 15, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga (2024)
• Namedropping, MONA (Museum of Old and New Art), Tasmania (2024)
• Carles Congost and Jeremy Deller. Music as a Foreign Language, Es Baluard Museu d’Art Contemporani de Palma (2023)
• Pigeon Park, Pigeon Park, London (2021) *North: Fashioning Identity, The Civic, Barnsley (2019)
• Fiesta Mobile, part of High Line Channel 14, High Line Art, New York City (2016)
• Primal Architecture, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2014)
• September 11, MoMA PS1, New York City (2011)
• Dead Air, Frac-Collection Aquitaine, Bordeaux (2009)
• Making History: Art and Documentary in Britain from 1929 to Now, Tate Liverpool (2006)
• Turner Prize, London (2004)
• Micro/Macro: British Art 1996–2002, Kunsthalle Mucsarknok, Budapest (2003) *Village Disco, Cabinet Gallery, London (2000) *Crossing, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague (1999)
• Bring Your Own Walkman, W139, Amsterdam (1997)
• Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll, Phoenix Hotel, San Francisco (1995)
• The Love Show, Daniel Bucholz Gallery, Cologne (1993)

Further Reading

• Jeremy Deller’s Instagram
• Artist profile page at Paul Stolper
• 2025 interview in Studio International Jeremy Deller discusses whether art can change the world (2025)
• Jeremy Deller on British identity 2023 interview in the Guardian

Jeremy Deller FAQs

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