Jamie McCartney

McCartney won his second public award for his pedal-powered road car Car-Bon Miles at the UK’s first Art Car Parade.

The Great Wall of Vagina comprises 400 plaster casts of women’s genitals arranged in ten panels; the polyptych spans nine meters in length. According to McCartney, the idea was sparked by the trend for the "designer vagina", where women resort to cosmetic surgery for a certain look. It was exhibited in Berlin in September 2008, and the following month in Brighton. (See Vagina and vulva in art.)

In 2008, McCartney, based at JAG Gallery, Brighton, auctioned off a sculpture of a death mask of his father's face as part of the Men Only exhibition which raised £500 for prostate cancer charity Everyman. McCartney called the piece "After". He was quoted as saying,"I’d never done anything like this before, but I wanted to address how I was feeling after my father’s death and reflect it in my art".

In early 1999 he left the partnership to establish a forge in Hackney, London to fulfill a public art commission he had won (a series of abstract farm animal sculptures in steel for Egham town centre, in Surrey). Later that year he again became involved in the Body Zone, helping to sculpt the interiors to resemble oversized body parts. This led to his move into the film industry, working as a sculptor and prop maker. He was frequently employed by Special Effects UK and Asylum, working on films such as Black Hawk Down, Charlotte Gray and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. He also worked directly on films such as Around the World in 80 Days, V for Vendetta and Casino Royale. His last film was Mein Fuhrer shot at Babelsberg studios in Berlin.

Jamie McCartney trained at Hartford Art School (USA), graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Art summa cum laude in 'Experimental Studio Art' in 1991. After graduation he returned to London where he worked for 4 years for antiques importer, David Wainwright, eventually becoming a buyer for him in India and Pakistan.

Jamie McCartney (born 1975) is a professional artist working in many disciplines who lives in Brighton, England. Maintaining that the naked body is still a controversial subject, he is most famous for his ten paneled wall sculpture The Great Wall of Vagina, comprising plaster casts taken from 400 volunteers' genitals. Often using the body as inspiration he works with both traditional and novel materials and processes, he explores the human condition and themes of religion, sexuality and death.