About
Joanne Coates is a working class visual artist using the medium of photography. She lives and works across the North East of England. Her work explores rurality, hidden histories, and inequalities relating to low income through photography, installations, and audio. She uses photography to question stories around power, identity, wealth, and poverty. She was first educated in working-class communities, and then at London College of Communication (BA Hons Photography). Participation and working with communities are an important aspect of her work. Coates is a farm labourer practicing active nature friendly methods, this forms an intersect with her art. She is deeply attached to places, the memories they hold and the people who inhabit them. Her work is often made from a lived experience perspective touching on class, disability and gender.
Self portrait from the series Laborius
Joanne Coates is the UK House of Commons Election Artist for 2024 , known for her compelling explorations of rural life, class, and environmental issues. In 2023, she was honoured with the Baltic Vasseur Arts Award, where she created a body of work, The Middle of Somewhere, addressing housing, climate, and the countryside. The workwas long-listed for the Deutsche Borse prize. In 2021 she was awarded The Jerwood / Photoworks award.
Over the past five years, Coates has garnered international recognition from prestigious institutions such as Magenta Flash Forward, British Journal of Photography, Unlimited, Arts Council England, and Women Photograph. She was awarded the Shutterstock Females in Focus Award in 2021 and, in 2020, held artist residencies at The Maltings Visual Arts, Newcastle University’s Centre for Rural Economy (CRE), and the Institute for Creative Arts Practice. During this time, she developed Daughters of the Soil, a project that examined the role of women in agriculture in Northumberland and the Scottish Borders.
In 2021, Coates was commissioned for the Tees-Swale project, collaborating with young people in Teesdale to explore themes of social justice in rural settings. Her work with various arts organizations frequently addresses class, inequalities, rurality, and community cohesion, as seen in commissions for Middlesbrough Mela, The Dorman Museum, and Hull City of Culture.
Her early work, North Sea Swells, focused on the fishing industry in Scotland's Highlands and Islands, following the lives of local communities over five years. The series was published by Another Place Press in 2020.
Coates' achievements trace back to her early career, where, during her foundation year in 2012, she received the Metro Imaging Portfolio Prize, a Magnum Portfolio Review, and the IdeasTap Innovators Award. She was one of 209 female photographers selected to photograph women MPs for the centenary of the vote. Coates is a member of Women Photograph and co-founder of Form Collective.
Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Middlesbrough Museum of Modern Art, Belfast Exposed, Jerwood Arts, The Arthouse, Somerset House, The Royal Albert Hall, Format Photography Festival, Reveal-T Photography Festival, and Cork Photo Festival. Her pieces are often presented in site-specific rural contexts and are part of permanent collections, including those of MIMA and the Government Art Collection.
Joanne Coates has also undertaken editorial commissions for Bloomberg, Vice, The Telegraph, Die Zeit. The Financial Times, BBC, Insider, and The Guardian, among others. Her diverse client list includes the NHS, Emerging Futures, Newcastle Carers, The Nature Friendly Farmers Network, and The Prince’s Countryside Fund.
Residing on the border between County Durham and North Yorkshire, Coates is available for assignments, artist commissions, visiting lecturing positions, and speaking engagements. You can contact her on 07533 925 638 or Hello@joannecoates.co.uk
She is Director of the Arts organisation Roova Arts (formerly Lens Think) with the aims of fighting for class equality and a more creative industries through participation and radical rural community arts. The organisation works with schools, and provides mentorships to 3 artists per year.
A W A R D S // G R A N T S // P R O J E C T S
Election Artist 2024
The Baltic Vassuer Artist Award 2024
Historic England | Everyday Heritage | On a wing and prayer | 2024 - 2025
DYCP - Exploring Rural Arts Practices and Place - 2023 - 2025
A-n Artists Bursaries | Recipient | 2023
British Council & Weareunlimited | Microgrant | 2022
Hannah Starkey & The Hepworth museum | Collaborative project | One of 8 women and non-binary artists | 2022
Jerwood / Photoworks prize | 2021
Shutterstock Females in Focus Award | 2021
Arts Council England Project Grant | Daughters of the Soil | 2021
Portrait of Britain | British Journal of Photography | Winner 2020
Rebecca Vassie 2020 | COVID Work Grant
The Baltic | North East Artist Grant | 2020
A-N Artist | Time | Space | Place | Grant 2020
YVAN Artist Grant | 2019
Creative Factory Production Grant | 2019
Colleirdescope Programme Navigator North | 2019
Winner The Old Girls Club Mentorship | 2016
Winner | Magenta Foundation Flash Forward Emerging Talent | 2016
Ideastap Innovators 2013
Metro Imaging Mentorship // Portfolio Prize 2013
S O L O E X H I B I T I O N S
Farleys House and Gallery | May - July 2025 | Lewes
Timespan | March 2025 | Helsmdale
The Middle of Somewhere | The Baltic centre for contemporary art | Gateshead | May 2024 - 17th November 2024
Belfast Exposed | Gallery 2 | The Lie of the Land | April 6th - May 20th 2023
National Trust - Ormesby Hall | Sheroes | Creative people and places ‘Borderlands’ | March 2023
Baltic centre for contemporary art | Lightbox Commission | November - December 2022
Vane | Newcastle | Daughters of the Soil | Summer 2022
The Gymnasium Gallery | Maltings Visual Arts | Berwick on Tweed | April - May 2022
Outdoor Installation ‘Seeds of hope’ | Albert Park | Middlesbrough Mela | 2021
Work in Progress | The Gymnasium Gallery | Berwick upon Tweed 2020
Flow Photography Festival | Inverness | October - November 2019
We Live by Tha' Water | The Nav School | Orkney International Science Festival | September 2016
The Plight of the Fishermen | Florence Arts Centre | Egremont Cumbria | August - September 2013
G R O U P E X H I B I T I O N S
Photo Frome | April 2025 | Frome
Lives less ordinary: Working class Britain re-seen | 25 January 2025 – 20 April 2025 | Two Temple Palace, London | Our 2025 exhibition explores the overlooked richness and diversity of working-class life and creative expression from the 1950s to now. Challenging long-standing inequities and misrepresentation, this exhibition will present compelling assertions of pride, tenderness, resilience, humour and hopefulness, and moments of play, joy and rest. Looking beyond the often reductive narratives of crisis and struggle that traditionally characterise representation of working-class people and communities in British arts institutions, Lives Less Ordinary champions a gaze from within, from artists from working-class backgrounds who have used their creativity to reflect wide-ranging experiences and identities, depicting and defining their culture and communities on their own terms.
Towards New Worlds | 19 Jul 2024 – 9 Feb 2025 | Middlesbrough Museum of Modern Art | A large-scale exhibition sharing fifteen artists’ experiences of seeing, hearing, feeling and sensing the contemporary world. The exhibition explores a rich variety of human perceptions and sensory experiences through works of art, which make connections between the artists’ internal worlds and their external environments. The artworks consider issues in the contemporary world, including justice, ecological consciousness, connectivity and care. Each of the artists involved is disabled, D/deaf and/or neurodiverse. The artists interpret their own perspectives, offering new insights for those encountering their work while recognising that we can never fully inhabit someone else’s experience.
Working Lives | This Exhibition brings together artworks dating from the 1880s to 2024 held in the Middlesbrough Collection and are shown alongside loaned pieces by contemporary artists connected with Cleveland Art Society. The exhibition examines the creative lives of artists working in the Tees Valley and highlights the importance of artist groups and the support structures that have been built by artists in the region. | Middlesbrough Museum of Modern Art | 25 Apr – 18 Aug 2024
After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989-2024 | Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry | Focal Point, Southend | Bonington Gallery | Throughout 2024
People Powered | Stories from the River Tees | Middlesbrough Museum of Modern Art | July 2023 - January 2024
Grow and Gather | Redcar Palace | June - July 2023 | Curation & design alongside a new body of work looking at allotments, socially engaged arts and urban nature.
Photo North Festival | The Faversham | Leeds | April 2023
M I L K | Reframing, Reclaiming | The Art House | Wakefield | October 2022 - January 2023
The Jerwood Photoworks Awards | Jerwood Space | London | September - December 2022
Street Level Photoworks | This Separated isle | 2021
West Coast Photo Festival | 2021
Representation on the Line: (Un)framing our Identities | London | July 2019 | September 2019
The Unseen Beautiful | Crown Street Gallery | Darlington | May 2019
Derby Photo Fringe | Form Collective | March-April 2019
Format Festival Derby | Camerawork revisited | March - April | 2019
Brighton Photo Fringe | Collectives Hub | October | 2018
Cork Photo Festival | Cork | Ireland | 2018
Artificial Things | Shutter Hub Exhibition | Art at the ARB | Cambridge | November -January 2017 / 18
EYEem Photography Festival | Berlin | September 15th -17th 2017
FLOW Photography Festival | Highland Print Studio | Inverness | September 2017
Retina Scottish International Photography Festival | Edinburgh | July / August 2017
Fresh Aire | Village | Leeds | June 1st -20th 2017
Defiance | London | September 2016
Revela-T Analog Photography Festival, Barcelona May 18th - June 5th 2016
RPS International Print Exhibition | Royal Albert Hall | 15th October - 12th
PERMANENT GRAVY STRETCH | DECEMBER 4TH - JANUARY 31ST | Philadelphia, USA
Oxo Tower, Bargehouse | London Analogue Festival | September 2014
T A L K S
Creative practice, photography and the land | Kestle Barton | Cornwall | July 2024
Socially engaged arts practice & young people | The Dales countryside Museum | July 2024
Guest Lecturer | London College of Communication | February 2024
Practice, Class and Rural arts | University of Bolton | November 2023
How I make it work, rural Arts Practice | University of Lincoln | November 2023
The Lie of the Land | University for Creative Arts | October 2023
Key Note Speaker | European Society for Rural Sociology Congress | Rennes, France | July 2023
Photography, Class and the Lie of the Land | Photo Frome | July 2023
Seminar: Photography & Representation | Impressions Gallery | Bradford | April 2023
The State of Photography IV | National Symposium | Grain | Birmingham City University | April 2023
Healing Through Photography: Seeing Through A Different Lens | In conversation | MAC | Belfast | April 2023
Guest Lecture | Falmouth University | Cornwall | 2022
The Countryside Code | Arts, Inclusion, Class and the rural | Jerwood Space | London | London 2022
Keynote Speaker | Nature Visuals webinar | 2022
Talk around class and Rurality | Norwich University of the Arts | March 2022
Class & Photography | Nottingham College | January 2022
Visiting Lecturer | Masters Programme | London College of Communication | January 2022
Visiting Lecturer | Norwich University of the Arts | January 2022
Rules of Engagement | Socially engaged practice seminar | London College of Communication | 2021
Royal Photographic Society | Northern culture in royal places | Womens Group | 2021
Photo Ethics Podcast | Class and ethics with The Other Collective | 2021
Grain | Class with the Other Collective | 2020
Lincoln University | February 2020
Edinburgh Napier University | November 2019 |
The Northern Eye | Photography Festival | Colwyn Bay | Wales | October 2019
Class and Photography | Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art | May 2019
Keynote Speaker | Photography Symposium | The Collection Museum | Lincoln | April 2019
UCLAN | Guest Lecturer | March | 2019
Class and Photography | Firecracker Photo Event | Museum of Wales | February | 2019
Lincoln University | Guest Lecturer | November 2018
Women in Photography | Photo North | Harrogate | November 2018
Bright Photo Fringe | The Phoenix | Group Panel discussion with Paul Herrman from Redeye ‘The Collective’ | October 2018
Visiting Lecturer | York Saint John University | York | October 2017
MiniClick | The Brunswick | Leeds | September 2017
Old Girls Club Close up Event | April 2017
King Island Cultural Centre | Tasmania | February 2017
'To loses one in order to find oneself' Artist talk | Leeds City Museum | October 2016
ASLE-UKI Postgraduate Conference | Lincoln | August 2016
Artist Talk | University of the Highlands & Islands | February 2016
Artist Talk | Florence Mine Arts Centre | August 2012
All Images © Joanne Coates 2024