Bio

My name is Edgeworth Johnstone, but I also work under the aliases Jompiy and Heckel’s Horse Jr. I’m also known as The Camden Market Free Art Man. I live in Muswell Hill, London, sell my art on Etsy and Ebay and keep a blog.

I became the first Stuckist exhibited in Tate in 2010 when five of my drawings from the collection of The Museum of Everything were included in their display in Tate Modern’s turbine hall. In 2024, I became the first artist exhibited at Tate Modern to be barred from entering the premises.

In 2024, I began making near-abstract paintings under the alias Jompiy. Jompiy is the Bitcoin of Art. Also in 2024, I published a website about the suspected plagiarism of my work by Delaine Le Bas in the 2024 Turner Prize.

I work every day at home, however on Monday’s I travel to Chatham Dockyard in Kent, where Billy Childish and I make collaborative paintings together under the alias Heckel’s Horse. I make my own versions of these paintings at home under the alias Heckel’s Horse Jr.

In 2006, I founded the art group The Other Muswell Hill Stuckists and have since been involved in many of Stuckism‘s exhibitions and demos. In c.2015 I founded Black Ivory.

Art collaborations:

Heckel’s Horse – a painting collaboration with Billy Childish (2013-present).
An untitled painting collaboration with Black Francis, aka Charles Thompson and Frank Black, frontman of the rock group, Pixies (2018)
Pattaya Collabs – drawings made in Thailand with female sex workers (2024-present).
Jonron – a painting collaboration with Ron Throop, founder of The Oswego Stuckists (2025-present).
Jonronthom a painting collaboration with Ron Throop and Charles Thomson, founder of Stuckism (2025-present).

I worked with Jimmy Cauty of pop group KLF, and K Foundation, as his assistant, making glittery police riot shields (2015)

Bands:

‘Most of my paintings begin with quick, almost abstract marks which gradually become more obviously figurative as I work into them. I nearly always work from imagination with no visual reference, preparatory sketches or underpainting (as demonstrated in this video). A painting can take from a few minutes to a couple of hours. Heckel’s Horse Jr. is based on my collaboration work with Billy Childish so has a more definite starting point and tends not to stray too much from the Heckel’s Horse painting I’m working from. Me a Doll‘s stem from Neo Hearts Fembot Oracle which I’ve pretty much ripped off in trying to make my own versions. I always have multiple projects going on the background, like Aesphonly and Masks but see it all under the same umbrella as my writing and music. I’m a musician who arrived late to non-musical art and see it all as just different manifestations of the same thing.

Selected Exhibitions:

2024: Heckel’s Horse Jr. at Highgate Gallery at Highgate Literary & Scientific Institute (Solo show).
2022: Heckel’s Horse Jr. (one painting) Christie’s Auctioneers, King Street. London.
2023 – 2024: Chasing Elsewhere at Fiumano Clase, Pall Mall, London (Group show. (Heckel’s Horse).
2017: L’ABC de la Peinture at Dupont Cafe, Paris (Group show).
2014: Our Friend Larionov at Pushkin House, London (Group show).
2010: Exhibition #2 at Tate Modern (Group show via The Museum of Everything).

Critique (art & music) by Ron Throop:

Critique (writing) by Charles Thomson:

‘Edgeworth has achieved success as a visual artist for his densely layered, textured and enigmatic imagery which is highly suggestive, yet leaves the viewer to piece together the ultimate meaning. He now turns the same process to a written work, where, again, meaning is provocative yet recurrently elusive — tempting and challenging the reader to reassemble the text for themselves and to define their own outcome. It would be easy to see precedence in a fusion of Finnegans Wake, Kafka and Alice in Wonderland. The text interweaves the daily and the dream, the real and the surreal, the idiosyncratic and the archetypal. This book is only for those who are prepared to invest time and intellect, as well as drawing on their own literary and life resources to assemble, and even contribute, the pieces of Edgeworth’s literary jigsaw. Despite — or even because of — the seeming impenetrability, this book is already a classic in its own rare genre.’ – review of Shin Detonator c. 2018