Luke Jerram’s multidisciplinary practice involves the creation of sculptures, installations and live arts projects. Living in the UK but working internationally since 1997, Jerram has created a number of extraordinary art projects which have excited and inspired people around the world. In 2023 alone, he had over 115 exhibitions in 27 different countries, visited by more than 3 million people.
As well as touring his installations, Luke’s artworks are in over 70 permanent collections around the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Shanghai Museum of Glass and the Wellcome Collection in London. See global map of collections.
Luke Jerram was given honorary doctorates from the University of Bristol in 2020 and University of Gloucestershire in 2022. He was made an Honorary Academician of the RWA and Fellow of The Royal Astronomical Society in 2020. He currently holds position of Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield.
In 2019 he set up and funded both the Dreamtime Fellowship to support recent art graduates in his home city of Bristol and the Bristol Schools Arts Fund to support secondary schools impacted by austerity. In 2024 he set up the Jerram Foundation to help deliver some of these charitable projects.
Luke creates artworks at all scales, that deliver messages and inspire communities to recognise often challenging concepts. With many of his latest artworks, including Gaia, Oil Fountain, Inhale and Tipping Point, Jerram has been using his skills in visual communication to draw attention to planetary health.
Many of his artworks combine arts, science and engineering. His artwork Museum of the Moon is one of Luke’s most successful touring projects and has been presented in different ways, more than 300 times in 30 different countries. With universal appeal, the exhibit has been breaking audience records in venues around the globe. Experienced by more than 20 million people worldwide, the artwork has toured India with the British Council, been presented at the Commonwealth Games in Australia, Art Basel in Miami, West Bank Palestine and exhibited in Aarhus, Denmark for the European Capital of Culture. It has been presented at Glastonbury Festival and even on BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing. Over 2 million people visited the artwork when it was presented at the Natural History Museum, making it one of their most popular exhibits ever.
Jerram is known worldwide for his large-scale public engagement artworks which leave space for the input of other creatives. Over the course of its 12-year tour, his celebrated street pianos installation ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ was presented in over 70 cities worldwide and has been enjoyed by more than 20 million people. The art project brought strangers together leading to many marriages, led to a TV show, and even was discussed in the House of Lords helping to change the UK Music licencing laws. Launched by the French Minister of Culture in Paris and Mayor Bloomberg in NYC, the installation received press coverage in almost every newspaper and television station around the globe. In collaboration with festivals and arts organisations Luke installed over 2,000 street pianos, but his project has also been copied by many, creating a global movement of pianos installed in public places for people to play. ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ changed the rules of public engagement, questioned and broadened where music and play can occur in our society.
Reimagining his city of Bristol, Luke’s giant water slide installation Park and Slide made international headline news, creating 500 news stories reaching an estimated 1 billion people worldwide. The project questions the role of a city, presenting them as an opportunity for experimentation and a blank canvas for creativity. As a consequence of the success of this artwork, several commercial companies sprung up (not affiliated with Luke Jerram), installing temporary slides in cities of America, Europe and Australia. With the help of Luke’s DIY slide pack, hundreds of thousands of pounds, have also been raised by charities, presenting their own urban slides across the UK.
Luke’s Glass Microbiology artworks are in museum collections around the world including The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), Shanghai Museum of Glass, Wellcome Collection (London) and Corning Museum of Glass (USA). Throughout the pandemic imagery of his sculptures of Covid-19 and the Vaccine, were used by the worldwide press, to communicate the nature of the pandemic. Through the sale of these works, over £55,000 was raised for MSF. His sculptures are also respected in the scientific community with features in The Lancet, Scientific American, BMJ and on the front cover of Nature Magazine. In 2015 his sculptures were presented alongside the work of Leonardo da Vinci at the Artscience Museum, Singapore. In 2010 Luke won the coveted Rakow Award for this work and a fellowship at the Museum of Glass, Washington.
Luke’s ongoing research of perception is fuelled by the fact that he is colour-blind. He studies the qualities of space and perception in extreme locations, from Zero G flights in Russia, freezing forests of Lapland and sand dunes of the Sahara desert, new ways of seeing emerge from these research field trips. Works such as Retinal Memory Volume, Sky Orchestra and the Impossible Garden have emerged from exploring the edges of perception.
Many of Luke’s most successful artworks provide opportunities for the public, curators and other artists to be creative. Examples include In Memoriam, Play Me I’m Yours, Museum of the Moon, Park and Slide and Withdrawn. Jerram builds and manages specialist teams of engineers, craftsmen and technicians to help him realise his works. Watch film about his working process. He says “I like to think through collaboration with specialists, we’re only limited by our imaginations in what can be created. Anything is possible.”
Over time, narratives connecting Luke’s different artworks have emerged and continue to be developed. Art in Mind was the first book written about his work on perception. His second book, published in 2020, Luke Jerram: Art, Science & Play, provides a fascinating insight into his evolving practice.
The Sky Orchestra is another critically acclaimed large scale project, which grew out of Europe’s largest arts award – a three year NESTA Fellowship. Questioning the ownership of the sky and the boundaries of public vs private space, the artwork plays music at 6am into peoples bedrooms using 7 hot air balloons with speakers attached. In 2013 they flew over Derry/Londonderry for UK City of Culture. The Mayor of London and LIFT also commissioned Sky Orchestra to fly over London to celebrate a year to go until the London Olympics 2012. In 2007 they launched the Sydney Festival and in 2006 they were commissioned by the RSC and Fierce to fly over Stratford-Upon-Avon.
Jerram has also created unusual gift artworks for his friends and family. In 2006 he made a Talking Engagement Ring for his girlfriend. The ring has his proposal etched onto the outside of it which can be played back using a miniature record player. In 2011, the Talking Ring project was presented at MOMA, Museum of Modern Art, NYC.
In 2008 Luke took part in the live science communication competition, Famelab. Out of 360 competitors from across the UK he got through to the final 6. Had an artist been crowned the best science communicator in the country, it could have caused some embarrassment. The competition have since changed their entry rules creating a special ‘Luke clause’ stating ‘artists working on science related themes’, may not apply.
With a diverse arts practice which is continuing to develop, it has taken many years to build public awareness of his practice. Back in 2015 Bloomberg Television made a documentary about his art describing Luke Jerram as “probably the most famous artist you’ve never heard of”.
Luke often talks about his work on both national and international television and radio as part of the promotion of his exhibitions. See latest press coverage. Luke regularly discusses his work on BBC Radio4’s Front Row. Working with independent production companies to develop projects, in 2020 he was commissioned to make the Palm Temple for a 2 hour television programme for Sky Arts.
In 2000 Jerram taught in war torn Mostar, Bosnia and he continues to lecture both in the UK and abroad. His most notable lectures include those at ROM – Royal Ontario Museum, ICA – Institute of Contemporary Art, Royal Society in London, NASA, The European Space Agency, The Banff Centre, Corning Museum, Wellcome Collection, Royal Collage of Art, The Ruskin School of Art, University of Washington, Nagoya University.
Luke Jerram lives in Bristol UK with his wife and two children.
Creative Partnerships.
Organisations from many different fields have commissioned Luke’s artwork since he began his career.
Major Institutions:
British Council, Pan Am Games, The Mayor of London, United Nations, Cop26, National Trust, English Heritage, Commonwealth Games 2014, Commonwealth Games 2018, London2012 Olympics, The Welsh Government, University of Salford Engineering, Warwick University, DFCS, Institute of Physics, Channel 4, Canary Wharf Group, Bristol Royal Infirmary, BBC1, The British Legion, Royal Liverpool University Hospital, The Polish Cultural Institute, University of West of England, BBC Radio 3 and 4, Discovery Channel, Sky Artes – Italy, Marvel Studios, Disney.
Arts Organisations: European Capital of Culture 2010, European Capital of Culture 2017, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Art Centre Melbourne, ROM, Jerwood Centre, De la Warr Pavillion, Compton Verney, NESTA, Site Gallery, Arnolfini, ICA, Watershed, European Capital of Culture, RWA, Witte de With, Arts Catalyst, Museum of Glass Washington, Museum Micropia, National Glass Centre, UMOCA, Futurecity, Grizedale Sculpture, Birmingham Museums Trust, Corning Museum of Glass, Museums at Night, All Rights Reserved, Provincial Domain Dommelhof, Brighton Festival, Greenwich+Docklands International Festival, INSITU, Without Walls, UK City of Culture 2013, UK City of Culture 2021.
Scientific Community:
Wellcome Trust, UK Space Agency, EPSRC, Leverhulme, Pirbright Institute, Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), The Natural History Museum, The Science Museum London, Natural History Museum, Kuwait, UKRI, Natural History Museum, Vienna. Exploratorium Museum, San Francisco, USA. Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa. KREBS – University of Sheffield, Cosmo Caixa, Bristol and Bath Science Park, ISVR University of Southampton Phaeno Science Museum, Singapore ArtScience Museum, MUSE Trento,Think Tank, at-Bristol, University of Bristol. ASDC (Association for Science and Discovery Centres) , London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Theatre and Music Organisations:
RSC – Royal Shakespeare Company, MIF- Manchester International Festival, ENO (English National Opera), Massive Attack, Bristol Old Vic, Insitu Network, Without Walls. Sydney Festival, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Kimmel Centre, Glastonbury Festival, Arcadia, LIFT, City of London Festival, Concurs Maria Canal, Helsinki Festival, Incubate Festival, Eisteddfod, Colston Hall, Fierce Earth, St.Georges Bristol. Lakes Alive, Provincial Domain Dommelhof, Brighton Festival, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, International Eisteddfod, Greenwich+Docklands International Festival.
Electronic Multimedia Arts: 01SJ, ISEA. Osnabrueck Media Arts Centre, Frequency, FACT, Watershed, RIXC, Da2, ACMI, TecArt, GoGoBot, V2, GOGBOT.