Launch Pad: Darren Nixon

Castlefield Gallery is pleased to present Launch Pad: Darren Nixon, selected from CG Associate members’ submissions by artist and Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Central Lancashire Lubaina Himid, and Castlefield Gallery’s programme manager Matthew Pendergast

Darren Nixon works largely with the tools and materials of painting but also incorporates strategies more commonly associated with other artistic practices. He uses the paintings he makes as the building materials for a shifting set of constructions, creating works that consider the ways in which ideas and images are affected by the medium in which they find their expression.

Interested as much in failure as he is in success, Nixon treats each part of the painting and construction process as an event, which can be delayed or manipulated, focusing on the varying moments of creative decision-making which shift in intention and meaning as a piece of work develops.

Throughout this public exhibition Nixon will be making new work, whilst also reconfiguring and reconstructing existing works, many of which have only existed in his studio up until now. The creation and exhibition of these works will be developed in relationship with the Castlefield Gallery space, its architecture, audiences and context as a contemporary visual art venue.

Throughout this period Nixon will also be collaborating with photographer Stephen Iles, who will be documenting the progress of the work in the gallery space. These photographic works will be present alongside Nixon’s constructions and the artist himself as he continues to work in the gallery, reflecting on what happens to an artwork when it is photographed and to what extent the image might become the work itself.

Darren Nixon (b1976, Derry, N. Ireland) Lives and works in Manchester. He completed his BA(hons) in Interactive Arts at Manchester School of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2000. Recent exhibitions include: Castlefield Gallery at The Manchester Contemporary (2013); Off Kilter, Piccadilly Place, Manchester (2013); This Me of Mine, APT Gallery, London touring to: Strange Cargo, Folkestone, Kaleidescope Gallery, Sevenoaks, Art School Gallery, Ipswich (2013); London Art Fair with Axisweb.org, London (2013). His work is held in a number of private collections.

Launch Pads are short exhibitions or performances that punctuate Castlefield Gallery’s curated programme providing artists, writers and independent curators with the opportunity to use the gallery as a test bed for the production, display and consumption of contemporary art. Launch Pads feature emerging talent selected from CG Associate members’ proposals (three times a year) and from the MA and BA art courses at Manchester School of Art (once a year). For more information about CG Associates visit castlefieldgallery.co.uk/associates

The exhibition will be open to the public from the 21-31 May with a special late night on Thursday 28 May from 6-8pm.