Albert Wallace

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT ALBERT WALLACE

Albert is a Jamaican born, British artist and co-owner of the first hybrid art gallery in Birmingham UK, The Birmingham Contemporary Artrt Gallery. I combine my passion for natural fibre materials and painting to bring my creative vision to life using leather as my canvas, a material we have used since the dawn of time. From starting out as a design apprentice at Things Jamaica, I started arts school before I became infatuated with the flexibility, feel and texture of leather, playing with patterns and shapes before shading on the leather. I take an anthropological approach to my artistic journey and how my upbringing education and travels fuelled this inspiration. Travel and art have been one of the biggest influences in my life and this has been a constant all through my career inside and outside my artistic practice. There is an intangible knowledge gained by seeing how life exists in different places. It highlights the similarities and exposes the differences of the simple everyday occurrences. I was destined to pursue a painting major but instead pursued a journey using leather in unconventional ways, designing and exploiting the grain, texture and feel of Leather. After learning more about Industrial Design, I knew it was the perfect fit and then my work became a constant feather within the diplomatic quarters, being used at the time, by the Jamaican Prime Minister’s office as official gifts to visiting dignitaries and other heads of government from other countries who visited the Island. After studying social work in Jamaica and then immigrating to the UK, I combined my passion of creativity with what I was most concerned about, human and social conditions that gave me the inspiration and passion to illustrate social commentaries on leather before my journey to translate this innovative concept and ideas into a reality. It\'s been within these experiences that I’ve found a passion for how leather as my canvas can be a common language that is used, purchased and shared more than any other material known to humans. Over the last 20 years I have worked across many different local Government Councils and Social Services in various capacity, including working with children with complex behaviours including mental health, abuse and county-lines. I have also been a Registered manager for children residential home while using art as one of my tools for creative therapy to some of the young people including staff as a fun way of expressing themselves while dealing with traumas.