Artist Biography

S. Jade Mallabone (they/them) is multi-disciplinary artist and researcher; born and raised in Hong Kong, currently based in the UK.

Their creative practice encompasses two key facets — a conceptual practice centring the notion and processes of ‘archival tendencies’; alongside an illustrative practice framed by escapism and mythological fantasy.

Most recently, Jade achieved a Fine Art/Art History PhD at Newcastle University (2025) culminating in the exhibition and thesis titled — Framing Archival Hindsight and Artistic Foresight: A Creative, Reflexive Exploration of the Reciprocal Relationship between Artist and Archive. Building on their Creative Arts Practice MA at Newcastle University (2017) and Fine Art BA at Nottingham Trent University (2016).

Their practice-based research project examined the ‘archive’ as both subject and resource in the context of artistic and cultural engagement. They intertwined creative processes and auto-ethnographic reflexive strategies, such as essayism, to explore the significance and fluctuations of the reciprocal relationship between artist and archive. Jade built on their established iterative practice — expanding into mindful modes of personal and self-archiving, including collecting, categorising, reconstructing and assemblage/re-assemblage; often describing the process as absurd abstraction. Their primary artistic mediums include ink drawings, penciled lines, typewriting, punches, stitches, and other mark and impressions on paper. Furthermore, they have been exploring artistic documentation through varied forms of annotated portfolios. Jade strives to embody the perspective and heighten the effectiveness of a hybrid practitioner — an intersection of artist, archivist, and auto-ethnographer.

Concurrently, Jade’s illustrative practice delves into intuitive ink, watercolour, and pencil drawings, to depict creatures, flora, and landscapes stirred from remembered childhood stories, mixed mythologies, and an overactive imagination. Their illustrations combine expressive brushstrokes and precise line work, drawing from their background in traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting. Through which, Jade playfully indulges in a more impulsive and informal practice — cultivating an escapist’s personal menagerie.