Prestige Bricks was established in 2024, specialising in the repair of bricks and other things. After two years, it was closed and demolished.
Jessee Lee Johns | Prestige Bricks
From Saturday 14 November 2026
To Sunday 14 February 2027
Due to the current shortage of bricks in Western Australia, and at the insistence of the state government, Prestige Bricks has opened this brand-new location.
One broken brick at a time, and with a deeply ethical and conceptual approach to materials, labour and waste, Prestige Bricks aims to boost the state’s supply of bricks by as much as 0.1%.
EXHIBITION LAUNCH EVENT
Saturday, 14 November • Doors open from 5pm
This November, BRAG welcomes four new exhibitions, and everyone is invited to the opening night. Enjoy an evening celebrating Admired Objects: Acquired Subjects, Prestige Bricks, Searching for Belvedere, and Earth Matters: Rocks in Contemporary Art.
Get a first look at all four shows, meet the artists, and enjoy an evening of conversation and connection with local food, drinks and music. Entry is free; RSVPs are essential. Visit the event page to secure your free tickets.
Jessee Lee Johns
Jessee Lee Johns was born in 1980 in Boorloo/Perth, and more or less hangs about and make work there.
At some stage Jessee muddled his way through a bachelor’s degree in fine art at Curtin University, but didn’t really seem to understand what was going on. This led to a fairly lengthy sabbatical from the practice of fine art.
At some stage it struck him as a good idea to make some paintings, but not knowing where to show them, Jessee decided to make a gallery in a popular fly dumping spot in Perth’s outer suburbs. After putting on a couple of shows there, someone moved in, and it was subsequently demolished. The gallery, CIOMA, went on to be rebuilt in a variety of contexts, most notably in an alternate future in the year 2020, from which it was summoned back to 2018.
In 2017, Jessee established a small nation called the Commonwealth of New Bayswater, of which they and a friend are the only citizens. And just in case you, the reader of this bio, feel as though you have been overlooked and your citizenship should be made official, it is probably the case that the paperwork is currently making its way through the bureaucracy and will be granted in due course. The Commonwealth appears from time to time, establishing its borders when conditions are favourable (generally coinciding with the Fremantle Biennale), fading as they turn. Kind of like an algal bloom, but instead of phosphates from agricultural runoff, it’s mining money in one way or another.
Image: Prestige Bricks, photography by Jessee Lee Johns.