A playground for emerging street artists in the late 80s, the infamous Barton Hill Youth club is where Jody Thomas first began painting. Among other big names: Inky, Cheo and Banksy, he is one in a small circle of what is considered to be Bristol’s first generation of graffiti writers.

As a teenager Jody developed a strong black and white figurative style, using brooding and noirish characters as the subject of his portraits. His early work reveals a clear talent for creating photo-realistic pieces with a technical competence far more advanced than that of his contemporaries.

To describe his practice, Jody prefers the term aerosol artist - still, a difficult genre to define. The artwork he produces is not graffiti in the strict and traditional sense of the word, yet his work originates from and essentially, is influenced by, that form of expression.

After spending the past few years working in design and developing his own brand, Jody has reappeared on the Bristol street-art scene with a significant following. His work is an iconic addition to the sides of Bristol’s buildings - perhaps most notably his recent contributions to UPFEST, Europe’s largest street art and graffiti festival.

His work has taken on a more thought provoking and meditative direction in recent years focussing on strong and powerful female portraits that explore emotional depth and feeling.