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John Goto

Born 1949, Stockport, Cheshire.

John Goto trained at Berkshire College of Art from 1965-67 and at St Martin's School of Art 1967-70: BA Hons in Fine Art (Painting). In 1977 he was awarded British Council Scholarship to study Photography at the École de Louis Lumière, Paris.

Goto is a photographic artist whose work explores social and political themes. Since 1980 he has exhibited regularly and extensively in group and solo shows throughout the UK and internationally. Recent solo exhibitions include those in London (Tate Britain) 2003; Stockholm 2004; Munich 2005; Tampere, Finland 2008; Paris 2012-13; Seoul, Korea 2014 and New Haven, USA (The Yale Centre for British Art) 2018.

Teaching has been an important aspect of the artist’s practice, he has been a part-time or visiting lecturer at more than thirty art colleges in the UK as well as appointments in Portugal, Russia, Finland and Jerusalem. In 2003 he was made Professor of Fine Art at Derby University (Professor Emeritus since 2014).

Goto has also used new digital technologies to create interactive ‘augmented reality’ installations in collaboration with Matthew Leach including: ‘The Invisible Artist’ at Gallery On, Seoul, Korea, 2011; ‘AR Gilt City’ at the Bank of England, 2011; ‘Joseph Wright AR’ at Derby Museum and Art Gallery, 2012 and ‘Dreams of Jelly Roll’ at the Freud Museum, London 2012.

Public collections which have acquired works by Goto include the Arts Council of Great Britain; the Australian National Gallery; Victoria and Albert Museum; Museum Of Modern Art, Valencia; Manchester City Museum; Perm State Museum, Perm, Russia; British Government Art Collection; National Portrait Gallery, London; the British Academy, London; University Of Sussex Collection; the British Art Center, Yale University; St Anne’s College, University Of Oxford; Derby Museums and Art Gallery; British Government Art Collection and Chongqing Art Museum, Chongqing, China.

From Baudelaire: Les Fleurs du Mal (for A.B) 1
From Baudelaire: Les Fleurs du Mal (for A.B) 2
From Baudelaire: Les Fleurs du Mal (for A.B) 3