International and Contemporary  |  Modern British/Post War  |  Photography | Archive  | Index

David Thorp (birth name Jeffrey Bligh) is an artist and curator. Jeffrey Bligh was adopted shortly after his birth in 1947. From then on he was known as David Thorp. He recently returned, as an artist, to his birth name of Jeffrey Bligh.

Born in 1947, Thorp/Bligh was educated in London attending a Foundation course at Camberwell College of Arts. He studied at Camberwell College of Arts and completed a master's degree at Flinders University in South Australia. His first major curatorial assignment was when he curated the exhibition programme for the 1986 Adelaide Festival in Australia, and he has had an eminent international curatorial career.

As an artist he has exhibited in the UK and Australia, with solo exhibitions in Cardiff and Melbourne. His work (under the name David Thorp) is represented in the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Flinders University Museum of Art, Australia. In 2022, he has exhibited early performance photographs with England & Co at Photo London; and had a solo exhibition of recent works incorporating early images (Everything Jeffrey does David does too) curated by Tomas Poblete at Contemporary Space in Folkestone.

Handful 1981
19.75 x 15.75 inches
Black and white vintage photograph

Hose Nose 1982
20.75 x 8.25 inches
Collage of three black and white vintage photographs on card

See No Evil (Performance with Gloves) 1979
46 x 56.6 cm (mount size)
Set of 9 colour photographs, mounted together. Each photograph 8.8 x 12.5cm.