Tom Hicks: Black Country Type

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Join Tom Hicks, creator of Black Country Type, in conversation with artist Dean Kelland to celebrate the launch of Hicks’ new self-titled publication Black Country Type. This is a free event, please consider making a donation when booking your ticket.

This major retrospective depicts over 100 photographs taken between 2017 and 2023, documenting the post-industrial landscape of the Black Country. Published by The Modernist, the book is designed by Laura Jaunzems and features a foreword by artist and photographer John Myers . This event includes a book signing by the author, pre-order your copy from Ikon Shop here.

Ikon Shop also stocks a selection of prints by Black Country Type, available at the event or online.

About the artists

Tom Hicks is the artist behind the documentary photography project Black Country Type. His work explores the post-industrial landscape of the region, focusing on words, typography, handmade lettering and signs. Hicks also photographs ‘types’ of architectural features, objects and structures.

Influenced by psychogeography, Hicks’ photographs are taken on regular ‘drifts’ through the Black Country, typically by bicycle. His work has been published and exhibited widely, publications include the photobook I.D.S.T  (The Modernist, 2020) and The Dereliction (Hercules Editions, 2021), a collaboration with the poet Liz Berry. Wolverhampton Art Gallery staged a solo exhibition of his work in 2020. In 2023 Hicks was commissioned for a public art project, a curated exhibition of work displayed across the Merry Hill site.

Dean Kelland works across performance, photography and filmmaking. His practice touches on cultures of taste and histories of class in order to produce engaging observations on collective and mediated identities. Kelland has exhibited nationally and internationally and undertaken residencies at New Art Gallery Walsall and the Birmingham & Midland Institute. Kelland holds a PhD from Central Saint Martins (entitled Flawed Masculinities: “Rupturing” 1950s/60s/70s British Sitcom via a Performance-led Interdisciplinary Arts Practice) and has taught Fine Art for over twenty-five years.