John Goto a British artist best known for his photo-digital artworks, notably coming to wider attention with the "High Summer" section of his Ukadia series of pictures. Goto has worked with historical, social and political subjects throughout his career.

In the late 1960s John Goto studied Fine Art

Fine art

Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....

 at St. Martin’s School of Art, London, where an interest in the narrative forms of European cinema and literature led him to the medium of photography. In 1977 he made a group of culturally significant portraits of young people in Lewisham

Lewisham

Lewisham is a district in South London, England, located in the London Borough of Lewisham. It is situated south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...

, South London, entitled "Lovers Rock", which was not published or exhibited until 2012. European history developed as a dominant theme in the work he made in "Paris" and "Prague" in the late ‘seventies.

In the 1980s he began work which combined painting and drawing with photography, laying the groundwork for his later practice with computers. First came "Terezin", which told the story of a Bauhaus

Bauhaus

', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...

 trained artist interned in the Nazi transit camp of Theresienstadt. "The Atomic Yard" explored conflicting ideas of culture in nineteen fifties Britain and was set within the highly aestheticised domestic surroundings of Kettle's Yard

Kettle's Yard

Kettle's Yard is an art gallery and house in Cambridge, England.- History and overview :Kettle's Yard was originally the Cambridge home of Jim Ede and his wife Helen. Moving to Cambridge in 1956, they converted four small cottages into one idiosyncratic house and a place to display Ede's collection...

 house in Cambridge

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

. His next exhibition, "The Scar", was made in response to the collapse of socialist regimes in Eastern Europe at the end of 1989.

Goto began using computers in his work in the early 1990s with a series made in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 entitled "The Commissar of Space" which dealt with the final years of the artist Kasimir Malevich’s life during the early Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

ist era.

His debt to Fernando Pessoa

Fernando Pessoa

Fernando Pessoa, born Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra Pessoa , was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic and translator described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in the Portuguese language.-Early years in Durban:On 13 July...

’s idea of heteronym

Heteronym

Heteronym may refer to:* Heteronym , one of a group of words with identical spellings but different meanings and pronunciations; though sometimes they have enough homophony to be considered a mondegreen...

ic authors is clear in the next exhibition, "The Framer’s Collection", which consists of a series of short stories attached to digitally manipulated snapshot

Snapshot (photography)

A snapshot is popularly defined as a photograph that is "shot" spontaneously and quickly, most often without artistic or journalistic intent. Snapshots are commonly considered to be technically "imperfect" or amateurish—out of focus or poorly framed or composed...

s, paintings, and documentary

Documentary photography

Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle significant and historical events. It is typically covered in professional photojournalism, but it may also be an amateur, artistic, or academic pursuit...

 photographs.

Political and social satire

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

 come to the fore in Goto’s"Ukadia" series, which charts life and culture in Britain during the New Labour years when Tony Blair

Tony Blair

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...

 was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...

. It comprises "Capital Arcade”, set in a fictional shopping mall; "High Summer”, which looks at our uncertain relationship with the countryside, and finally "Gilt City”, in which Goto explores the ever widening gap between rich and poor.

His account of the contemporary world continued with "John Goto’s New World Circus", a thinly veiled allegory

Allegory

Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...

 of the occupation of Iraq set within a traveling circus. His attention turned to the issue of climate change

Climate change

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

 with "Floodscapes" and cultural history in "Dance to the Muzik of Time". Prompted by the invasion of the Gaza Strip

Gaza Strip

thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...

 by the Israel Defense Forces

Israel Defense Forces

The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...

 (27 December 2008 - 21 January 2009), Goto has made "Mosaic", a series of apparently abstract images, which belie their traumatic source.

A lifelong student of jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, he has made two homages to its exponents. "West End Blues" is a tribute to jazz migrants to London 1919-74, whilst “Dreams of Jelly Roll” seeks to creatively explore some of the tall stories told by the great jazz composer and pianist Jelly Roll Morton

Jelly Roll Morton

Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....

.

The development of Augmented Reality

Augmented reality

Augmented reality is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is...

 technology allowed Goto to extend his practice of photomontage into the actual world. In collaboration with Dr. Matthew Leach, he has produced augmented reality installations of West End Blues, The Invisible Artist and AR Gilt City, using the Layar

Layar

Layar is a Dutch company based in Amsterdam, founded in 2009 by Raimo van der Klein, Claire Boonstra and Maarten Lens-FitzGerald. They have created a mobile browser called Layar...

 app.

Goto has had solo London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 shows at Tate Britain

Tate Britain

Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...

, the National Portrait Gallery, and The Photographers' Gallery. He has exhibited his photo digital art widely in Europe. He works as Professor of Fine Art

Fine art

Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....

 at the University of Derby

University of Derby

The University of Derby is a university in the city of Derby, England. The main site is on Kedleston Road, Allestree in the north-west of Derby close to the A38 opposite Markeaton Park...

, England. Goto is represented by Galerie Munich; Gallery On, Seoul and Dominique Fiat Galerie, Paris

External links

• Official site.
• John Goto's biography.
• Review of 'High Summer' by Elisabeth Mahoney
• Review of' Capital Arcade' and 'High Summer' by Robert Clark.
• Commentary on' Gilt City' by Mark Durden.
• Review of 'Ukadia' by Common Culture.
• Interview concerning 'The New World Circus' by Tim Teeman.
• 'Photographic Migrants: John Goto’s West End Blues' by Dr Nancy Roth.
• John Goto - Galerie f 5,6

Chronology of works

• 1971”
• Empire of Things 1972/6”
• Rock 1977”
• 1977”
• 1978”
• 1979/80”
• 1980/81”
• 1982/83”
• Panelworks 1983/4”
• Landscapes 1984/5”
• Sketches 1985”
• Animals 1985/6”
• 1987”
• Atomic Yard 1888/9”
• Scar 1990/1”
• Commissar of Space 1992/4”
• Land 1992/2001”
• Framer’s Collection 1995/6”
• Arcade 1997/9”
• commission, 1999”
• Portrait Gallery Residence, Architecture 1999/2000”
• Portrait Gallery Residence, Portraits 1999/2000”
• Summer 2000/1”
• of the Vice-Presidents of The British Academy commission 2001”
• of Face 2002”
• of Dr. Donald Meltzer”
• Triennale zur Fotografie commission, Graz, Austria 2002/3”
• Electrico 104 commission 2002/3”
• City 2002/4”
• Goto’s New World Circus 2004/6”
• commission 2005/6”
• of the Land 2007”
• "Dance to the Muzik of Time 2007/8"
• "West End Blues 2008"
• "Mosaic 2009/10"
• "Dreams of Jelly Roll 2010 -"
• “Travels in Augmented Reality 2010 -”