Jane Lawson has spent the past twelve years working with fungi to loosen the grip of capitalist realism on our collective imagination. There is still some way to go. She also makes diagrams to help her understand the processes and structures that shape our world and possible pathways to an environmentally and socially just future. Her work is influenced by the US Radical Mycology movement and informed by her previous involvement in climate and anti-consumerist activism and work as a researcher into corporate ethics.

Jane graduated from the University of Salford in 2012 and since then has exhibited nationally and internationally. Recent projects include a poster as part of Jade Montserrat’s commission Tender Order (for Precarious Straits, 2021); Being Fungal (UK Fungus day event for Heart of Glass, 2023); Detox to Delish (part of A Modest Show, 2022). In 2023 she completed an MA in Art and Ecology at Goldsmiths.

Jane was part of the ten-strong group that co-curated Manchester Art Gallery’s Climate Justice gallery in 2021/2, using the Gallery’s collection to highlight the legacies of colonialism and extractivism. She has worked for Castlefield Gallery in Manchester; initially setting up and running the Gallery’s Associates scheme and more recently working as Artist Development Producer. In her current role as the gallery’s Artist Environmental Lead she has kickstarted SPARK, a network of North West-based artists wanting to intervene in the climate emergency.

Image: Still from Beyonds – video projected onto oyster mushroom spore print as part of the installation Here is the handful of shadow I have brought back to you (2023)