About



Dr. John Walter (b. 1978, Dartford, UK)

I am an artist and academic based in London with a transdisciplinary practice that bridges art, science, and cultural discourse. My work addresses complex themes such as virology, death and dying, and cultural transmission, employing playful strategies to engage audiences and foster dialogue. Rooted in pictorial concerns, my practice spans painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, costume, performance, video, animation, VR, AR, NFTs, sound, installation, spatial design, curating, and writing.

I studied at Chelsea School of Art, The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, and The Slade School of Fine Art before earning a PhD in Architecture from the University of Westminster, where I now co-teach. My research addresses the intersection of art, biological sciences, and architecture, with a particular emphasis on HIV as a crisis of representation.

My artistic practice combines bottom-up and top-down approaches. It begins with creating visual dictionaries - repertoires of drawings and paintings that serve both as standalone works and as reservoirs for larger, hybrid projects. This methodology has informed immersive, large-scale installations such as Alien Sex Club (2015) and CAPSID (2018), which blend jestered performances with scientific and social commentary. My career has been characterised by an entrepreneurial approach to building a world for my work, frequently occupying unusual contexts and spaces.

I am a serial collaborator, working with architectural designer/educator Samantha Hardingham teaching design studio at the Architectural Association and the School of Architecture and Cities, University of Westminster. I have worked with virologist Professor Greg Towers exploring viral nanomachinery; with clinician Professor Alison Rodger opening discussions on HIV and sexual health; and with artists such as Cian Donnelly, Dominic Dispirito, and Elke Zauner. Recently, I partnered with botanist and transdisciplinary researcher Dr Alejandro Luna under the name Maison Trampoline. Together, we completed a residency with Invisible Flock at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, experimenting with their Bio Arts Lab.

Residencies have been pivotal to my practice, including time at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, The British School at Rome, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, The Quantitative Biosciences Institute (San Francisco), and The Kavli Institute of Nanosciences (Netherlands). These experiences have allowed me to connect art with scientific exploration, employing my distinctive “shonky” aesthetic - a deliberate visual awkwardness - to make complex ideas accessible and engaging.

My work has been widely exhibited nationally and internationally, with major shows including NODE MULCH (2023), Jezreel’s Tower (2020), Somewhere in Between: Four Collaborative Projects (2018), and Coming Out: Sexuality, Gender and Identity (2017). My work is held in public and private collections, including the Arts Council Collection and The Walker Art Gallery, and has been supported by Arts Council England and Wellcome. I was a recipient of the prestigious Churchill Fellowship for my research into end-of-life care and hospices, and winner of the 2016 Hayward Curatorial Open for Shonky: The Aesthetics of Awkwardness, which toured venues such as The MAC Belfast, DCA Dundee, and Bury Museum and Sculpture Centre.

Photo:  Alexa Rocourt