Jack Brook, born in south London in 1996, came to art through the back door being an artist assistant before he was ever an artist.

The materiality of his work owes a lot not only to the three Brazilian artists he has assisted but also the cabinet maker and builder he worked for before them.

He uses a papier-mâché or paste of cardboard and wood glue that he mixes with various wood dyes and other pigments to make painterly wall mounted sculptures, usually on wood or canvas. This paste alters dramatically as it dries, darkening and shrinking back in on itself in a way that allows things temporarily hidden underneath to remerge in changed states. This fits in well with themes he explores in his work including reification and alienation. The latter being the focus of his first solo show at Rabbet in Peckham in February 2025, just 18 months after he began making his first pieces.